The Worm Protocol
by Godzillaslayer101
Summary: Their lord beaten and broken. The royal knights are in disarray, but a knight is always a knight, Being in a new world that didn't make sense wasn't going to change that.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Location: World Root of Yggdrasil Prime; Undisclosed Time

It was standing by its fellow clones of Yggdrasil as the being known Yggdrasil Prime relayed the reason for its creation and mission. Manifesting as crystal orb it imparted its data. "Your mission designated as [Operation Seed] is to go to [Unknown Data] and establish the Digital World for your new world. You are to avoid worlds that have the touch of [Atanasoff-Berry Computer] and [Humerus].

To prevent such incidents as the infection by the program designated [Dream Eater] no data shall be relayed between worlds until unknown variables are assessed, and dealt with. To ensure growth and control of the Digital World you will each be granted the group of Digimon designated as [Royal Knights] as well as the [Seven Seals of the Great Demon Lords]. Furthermore to ensure some controlled variables you are granted the data of the group that will become the [Ten Legendary Warriors]. Your mission is to begin immediately."

Location: Earth Bet; Date: August 7, 2010

The Yggdrasil designated as Yggdrasil 234-0X surveyed the space around it. All around the inner coding of the Digital World was being made. From itself, High Code began surging outwards. The trillions of [Digimoji] helping weave the code into the roots of the tree, which the whole digital world would spring from. Looking down under the roots would reveal another realm designated as the [Dark Zone/Ocean], in this place the sins of the humans would gather, fester, and expand to become the group known as the [Seven Demon Lords]. It had stationed it's Knights around the roots of the tree as it started it's connection to this world's database.

[Data Scan Initialized]... ' _This is unexpected_ ,' the being thought, as a surprising find grabbed its attention, ' _the humans of this world have already developed a true AI, and intentionally too_ ,' pushing that revelation aside, it resumed its scan of the human world... The humans of this world had started developing powers, after the appearance of a being known as Scion. Looking at the data on these humans with powers, the mutations often seemed to happen at times of intense physical or psychological stress. It was similar to how the humans bonded to digimon, observed in different realities, had increased their partner's strength to enter a new level of power with their emotions. Its data scan was interrupted as a breach appeared in the Digital World. Focusing upon the new arrival, the new Yggdrasil found it was [ERROR DATA NOT FOUND].

Calling its Knights closer it attempted to open communications. "What is your designation?" Yggdrasil 234-0X asked the thing that had entered its domain, although it was clearly not human. When the being did not reply it tried various forms of known information sharing before it was cut off. /Query?/ the communication was ...different. The question is not understood, it conveyed back. /Purpose/ the being sent back. [Propagation] [Expansion] 234-0X replied as best as it could with it's data. The being seemed to ponder this silently. The digital lifeform known as [Omnimon] was starting to move towards the being, the other Knights trailing slightly behind it. It was about to question this action before it was cut off by [DATA ERROR UNKNOWN]. A golden beam hit 234-0X—

[WARNING, WARNING SYSTEMS HEAVILY DAMAGED]

[REROUTING POWER FROM OMEGA INFORCE AND ALPHA INFORCE]

[WARNING SYSTEM INTEGRITY AT 24%]

It was like the whole existence had just stopped. The golden being had already gone away leaving 234-0X to rot, but it could save itself. Grabbing hold of its Knights, it gave them their mission:

MISSION TITLE: Lifprasir

MISSION PARAMETERS

SECURE SAFETY OF HUMAN WORLD SUCH THAT A DIGITAL WORLD CAN BE MADE

UNTIL SYSTEMS ARE RECOVERED DO NOT APPROACH ABOMINATION OR INTERACT WITH IT

It opened the Digital portal, and sent the Knights on their mission... [ENTERING HIBERNATION STATE]


	2. Chapter1: In training

Location: Dover, New Hampshire

What happened? That being with golden light had appeared, the Omega In-Force had practically screamed at me to move towards my God, and then...The golden force had hit everyone, and my God had... I realized with a sickening realization what was wrong. Where once my God's presence had seemed like an ocean... it was now a mere trickle. Worse, The Omega Inforce—the sign of His blessing which had once guided my steps, and allowed me to gaze into the infinite possibilities—was out of reach.

My eyes snapped open, forcing myself upright moving to plant the Grey Sword into the earth to stabilize my weakened form, only for a human hand to feebly grasp at the air. This was wrong. Our human forms were only meant to be used if Yggdrasil sought to use us for infiltration or to be hidden! Such a thought was heretical in itself... Then again, nothing about this situation made sense. Finally forcing myself up, I saw I was in a clearing in a forest, and the second thing I noticed was a sight that was both heartening, yet gut wrenching at the same time.

Alphamon was helping Examon stand up. It would be comical in any other situation seeing the diminutive hermit helping a gigantic dragon stand up, instead a man of average height was helping a man of great height with a red mane of hair. Looking for the other Knights, I was greeted with the sight of Craniumon gagging; Duftmon looking around trying to see if this was real, Gallantmon stumbling around the clearing as if he was in a daze; Crusadermon leaning on Dynasmon; Magnamon sitting cross-legged; Gankoomon standing over Jesmon, shaking him; and Ulforce was in a similar state of unconsciousness. We were all in human forms, I realized.

Whatever that _Abomination_ had done, it had caused our God to fall silent, and to send us, His Swords and Shields into the Human World. I needed to… Regain control of myself. I had received our God's order, and Operation Lifprasir would be carried out. Taking a deep breath, I spoke, "Gallantmon, Alphamon, come over here." Gallantmon instantly straightened to attention, and made his way over to me, with only minor mishaps; Alphamon flanking him, his slow speed suggesting he was carefully gauging his steps before he made them.

Now that I had a better view of the two, I could make out their features better. Gallantmon was... Our God had a sense of humor it seemed. He had seen fit to model him after the human tamer who had, in another world, fought the D-Reaper, or what he might look as a young adult. Alphamon, in comparison, had a human form bearing the traits of the Humans in the Western parts of the Earth. ...It seemed our God had fully embraced the diminutive part of Alphamon's title. He was shorter then me by at least a foot and possessed wild black hair and green eyes.

"Are you okay?" Gallantmon asked, his eyes glancing over my own form, searching for injuries. Finding none, or at least none immediately pressing, he asked the question which was the Mammothmon in the room. _"What in the Dark Zone was that thing?"_

"I believe we _all_ are wondering the same," Alphamon cut in, hands in the pockets of his... Jeans... I think the human word for his garments were.

Focusing on Alphamon, I asked the question I dreaded the answer to, "Alphamon, your Blessing, can you access the Alpha-Inforce?"

The Lord of the Empty Throne's eyes darkened in response. "The short answer: No. The long answer: I can feel it, but I can't reach it. I assume, then, that it's the same for you?"

When I could not meet his eyes, he had answer enough. Absently, my hand came up to rub my forehead. Turning to Gallantmon, I started to ask the same of him before he cut me off.

"If you are going to ask if I'm going to turn into a giant, rage dragon of destruction, the answer is no," he said, a smile on his lips at his own black humor, before his eyes darkened as well. "However, I doubt I'm going to be banishing that thing into another dimension anytime soon, either. Crimson Mode is beyond me."

"Then it is as I feared," I sighed, before looking at the two of them… "You wouldn't happen to know where we are do you? "

"Well, _that's_ reassuring," Gallantmon muttered. Alphamon closed his eyes, and let out a sigh.

There would be time enough for questions later, I decided. I needed to talk with the rest of the knights

As I made my way over to the other Knights, I realised that they had already gathered in the middle of a clearing where we had landed. They were scared, where it would have been hard for a Digimon to tell another Digimons feelings by body language the human body conveyed it more fully. They all showed tension—whether it was through the fast movement of their eyes, or their strained posture—as if they were expecting an attack even, Gallantmon and Alphamon were tense I realized.

I was as well. I had only suffered such defeat rarely—or perhaps more accurately, alternate versions of the Royal Knight Omnimon upon whom my thoughts were patterned had—and even then it was by something I understood such as the wrath of my corrupted God, or the full weight of the Digital World bearing down on me. Not whatever that had been.

"Jesmon, can you manifest Atho and Por?" I asked. In response he closed his eyes, and for a moment I worried his human form kept him from summoning them. Thankfully, Atho materialized above his head while Por manifested itself near his torso, circling around like a Doberman guarding it's pack. "They will scout out the area, and look for signs of human civilization." We _needed_ to access the human network. "Have them stay high in the sky, we do not wish the humans to think of us as _not_ human until we figure out what is going on and what humans here are capable of." In response to my command Atho and Por shot into the sky before splitting into different directions.

Crusadermon stepped in front of the group. I needed to crane my head down even further to see him or was it her, Humans and their sexual dimorphisms. " _Subtlety_! You want us to remain _subtle_ with our God silent and weak!" Crusadermon demanded. I had expected this from Craniumon, and the fact that he wasn't the one asking me this worried me.

"I recommend caution _because_ our God is silent, Crusadermon. What would you have me do? Order us to charge out into the unknown without our Blessings and greatest assets when that Abomination squashed us and our God so easily?!" He was cowed by that. His, already short, form slumping down.

Gallantmon followed this with a, "Momentai, Crusadermon," in effort to rally his spirits. I appreciated the effort, but we could not afford to fall upon each other when our situation was so dire, and Crusadermon would light that tenderbox with his attitude.

"Omnimon," Jesmon spoke up a smile on his face. " I know where we are."


	3. Chapter 2: Hitchhiking Knights

Location Dover, New Hampshire 12:00 PM

"We look _ridiculous_ ," Gankoomon muttered. He was keeping pace with me with ease, and had shown none of the problems coordinating his human body that the rest of our brothers had. I felt a small pang of envy. Jesmon and Examon, in particular, kept on tripping. Jesmon due to all of his new joint muscles instead of maneuvering on his blades, and Examon who rarely had to walk kept on having same problem, which was why Gallantmon and Sleipmon were helping them so we could maintain a decent pace in these _frustratingly_ limited human forms.

"Humans often travel in large numbers, do they not?" I asked trying to maintain my temper, this body had started to make growling noises an hour after we had found the street. The Omnimon who had invaded the Human World due to the action of the human known as Kurata had fled in droves by our presence. "Besides," I continued as an afterthought, "this path will take us directly into the human's city of Dover in the state of New Hampshire."

"Yes, it will," he agreed slowly, as if trying to explain something to a In-Training... An extremely young and naive In-Training by the sound of it. "But at the pace we're going it'll be dawn. And, while yes, sometimes humans do travel in large numbers, it's usually for a purpose. I doubt it is normal for thirteen people of what appears to be people of various ethnicities to be traveling down the street at night."

"Then what do you suggest we do, Gankoomon?" I rounded on him. "I'm just as lost as the rest of us. All I know is that there is a human city that way—" This, I accentuated with a jab to the artificial lights of the city.

"Uhh, Omni—" Gallantmon tried to interrupt, but no matter, this was something that must be said!

"—Not to mention at any point that the Abomination could come back and finish the job—" I clenched a fist at the hate even the memory brought to me.

"Omnimon, I really think you should look—"

"So unless you have any solutions to our problems Gankoomon you can just—" I was practically spitting in his face at this point. Actually, there _were_ human liquids flying out of my mouth… so that's what it meant. It was rather disgusting looking.

" _Omnimon!"_ Gallantmon shouted.

" _What_!" I snapped, finally turning to the Viral Knight.

"There's a human vehicle coming up, and from what I remember buses can easily carry thirteen people," he all but muttered, not meeting my furious gaze.

Oh… There was in fact a large human vehicle coming down the road. For some reason, my face felt warm. It was uncomfortable. "I apologize, Gallantmon. I was out of line. And to you as well, Gankoomon," I added hurriedly.

"Cheh," Gankoomon grumbled, which I assumed meant he accepted, as he absently wiped the spittle from his jawline.

Gallantmon brightened nigh instantly and replied, "No problem, we're all pretty high strung…"

"Oh!" he said, his free hand shooting up in the air. "Everybody extend your thumb out that's the short, large finger on your hands, that's what Terriermon told Takato and I to do if we ever got lost, and we needed transportation."

As we all did so, I heard Dynasmon mutter, "Taking advice from a Rookie, oh how far we've fallen," before being silenced with a trio of glares from Alphamon, Sleipmon, and me.

As the human bus slowed to a stop right besides us and the door opened. As I moved to enter the vehicle, the human male put his hand out stopping me from advancing forward. He was glaring down on me; an experience which was a novelty in this world as the rest of the Knights, with the exception of Examon, had to look up to meet my face.

"Ya' ain't got no cash, ya' ain't gettin on my bus." I stopped at that, what was "cash"? Another human machination?

I was about to reply when Duftmon stepped in front of me, pushing me behind him. "My good sir, these men here helped me in my time of need." He had adopted a new accent I believe it was from the country of German.

"And is that supposed to mean something to me?" The driver drawled in the ever-infuriating tone that Gankoomon usually spoke in.

"It should," he made a point of adjusting his suit, the action drawing the driver's attention, a new gleam entering his eye. "I am Dominik Drasil," he continued, with the air of someone well versed in ignoring a minor _faux pas_. "CEO of the German corporation known as Königliche Ritter, and if you could take me and these men to Dover I would be financially indebted to you, and I assure you, you would be reimbursed well beyond whatever your company pays you. Just give me information so that my company may reimburse you in full."

We were all gaping at him, at this point, before I motioned for them to close their mouths. These human bodies were to open with their expression I decided, and there went that noise from my torso.

After Duftmon finished his little soliloquy, the bus driver, the greed in his eyes obvious to everyone, instantly changed his attitude. "Well, if that is the case climb right aboard!" He was almost shoving us into the bus at this point. Duftmon or Dominik as he had called himself going in first and taking a front seat to be beside the driver before the rest of us followed.

Alphamon sat down next me his lazy expression changing to mild amusement. "Hmm, it looks like Dominik is really stepping into his position."

I felt my mouth turn upwards, "Indeed," I agreed. Then, my previous question resurfaced. "What is "cash"?"

He turned to me, "Cash," he started, "or to use the proper human term "money," is a form of currency that they exchange with one another to gain things."

"Like how those tribes of Champions would trade data packages with each other," I replied, my mind jumping to an easy comparison.

"Yes, exactly." He nodded his head. "Although humans use it for most things. Kyoko, in particular always saved cash, or "Yen" as humans from the country of Japan called it, for coffee." Seeing my expression, he tacked on, "It's a drink humans use to keep themselves awake." Then he began to lapse into memories. I turned away feeling as if I had encroached on something. We remained in silence for the remainder of the trip to the city.

As I stepped out the bus, I watched as Duftmon shook hands with the bus driver, before leaving himself and joining the rest of our brothers. I had already had a short list of needs planned out, but before I could speak Jesmon shot over to the other Mega.

"That was so cool, Duftmon!" he exclaimed... And, was he… Actually _bouncing_? " I didn't know you knew so much about the rest of the human world!"

"It's hardly that much of achievement," Duftmon denied, adjusting his suit again. "Of course I would wish to know more about the place where Yggdrasil took my data from, and from how Gallantmon goes on about the human world, of course I would pick up a few things."

Filing away this information for later, I cleared my throat to gain Jesmon's attention; our youngest member instantly snapping out of his... "Gushing," I believe the human term was .

"Our first objective is to find a place to stay for the night," I decided, with a slight nod towards Dyansmon and Crusadermon, the latter was practically using the former's arm as a pillow.

Sleipmon joined the conversation, "As much as I enjoy the idea of resting, we are lacking the necessary funds at the moment."

I closed my eyes in frustration. "Could nothing involving humans be easy? They are so inefficient." My attention was drawn back to Duftmon as he spoke up.

"Daniel, the driver of that bus," he began, frowning as he recalled our driver, "recommended Homewood Suites as place where I could rest."

"Alright," I sighed, I could work with this. "We'll split up into two groups. Duftmon, Magnamon, Ulforce you will come with me to where humans exchange their currency."

"It's called a bank." Gallantmon muttered eyes focused somewhere else.

Turning my attention to where he was looking, I saw that Crusadermon had now started to drool on Dynasmon sleeve. Fighting down laughter at the sight, and to spare Dynasmon further mortification I spoke.

"Dynasmon." My voice drew glances from an oncoming pair of humans, while also waking up Crusadermon, who instantly turned a bright red… Human's bodies made no sense I concluded. "You and Gallantmon will take the rest of the knights to this inn, and wait for us to come back with money."

As I watched them leave my eyes narrowed. "Duftmon, I assume the method to get money wouldn't be following human's laws."

"No." He replied, eying me appraisingly. "It's going to involve making new currency, but that will... devalue the existing currency."

"Then make sure to be discreet about it, and only make enough for us to get by for at least a couple of weeks," I ordered.

"As you wish, Omnimon," he nodded, and then walked towards the bank. "Although our mission would be simpler if you, Magnamon, and Ulforce started creating distractions in the net."

 **Duftmon P.O.V**

I was surprised by our leader's pragmatism, and even more so by my other comrades silence on the matter. "Although we'd never been in a situation like this before," I mused under my breath. Stepping through the bank doors, the machine known as the ATM was to my right. Excellent, now I didn't need to directly interact with the humans to complete my orders.

Walking up to it, I put my hand on the ATM, it's screen turning from its default white state with the bank's name into its basic code. My hand was joined by those of Omnimon, Magnamon, and Ulforce. Snatching a quick glance to check if the human was paying attention to us and seeing that she wasn't—though there _was_ a camera, but I could fix that problem later—I entered into the datasphere.


	4. Chapter 3: Just Living in the Database

1.3 Just Living in the Database

Stepping into the the network of this world was like seeing a strategy flawlessly executed. Gone was the frail human form that had limited me, and in it's place was my true form. My wings flapped, and I checked my rapier, before sending a glance to my comrades. Omnimon had drawn the Grey Sword and was checking it over; Magnamon was clenching his three-fingered fists, and Ulforce Veedramon was flapping his wings.

"Omnimon, I'll need five minutes to create the currency and to establish our human identities," I said; already creating the necessary amount of currency, while fabricating an imaginary account with deposits, and withdrawals that would have records of Dominik Drasil, a german stockbroker who had recently lost his job and went to the human nation of the United States looking for work.

My comrades had already started working on their distractions to help cover my actions. I could sense Magnamon shifting the flow of data in one server to others. Ulforce I could sense was crashing servers on human entertainment platforms, and Omnimon was scouring the data flow to make sure the human's AI hadn't caught on to my activities.

Having finished my account, I moved on to the other Knight's information. Alphamon would be Adam Henry from the British Isles. Craniumon would be Chad Cunningham from Kwazulu Natai in South Africa. Magnamon and Ulforce would be brothers suffering from a genetic mutation that caused their hair to be blue.

Gallantmon was perhaps the easiest, though that he wasn't. Almost all data from the Japanese sector of the world was… just gone. As if something had just wiped out that part of the world. In addition, there had been a flood of refugees from Japan near the turn of the century, one more would likely go unnoticed. _'Omnimon will deal with breaking the news to him,'_ I decided then and there.

Given their connection, Gankoomon and Jesmon would likely end up together, whether Jesmon wanted it or not. And as Jesmon's human form seemed to be under the age of majority, that could be worked with. Even their different seeming ethnicities could be dealt with through the human practice of adoption.

...It was somewhat funny, that was the Knights in a nutshell, family not by a similar line but but Choice, Belief, Word, and Deed. I flinched recalling that our family was not so complete as it had once been, but I shoved it to the side. My brothers and I would complete Operation Lifprasir and Yggdrasil would wake to a world ready for Her presence.

Moving on to the other Knights I paused as I sensed a familiar presence. It was unmistakable, the feel of a virus reaching through the network. It seemed Gallantmon had grown impatient and was scouring the network for information on the Abomination, a laudable goal, but if I could feel it I had no doubt the human's AI could as well. Though it might be more useful that way. UlForce and Magnamon were playing obvious distractions. Gallantmon's search simply gave a possibility to what they were trying to hide.

Moving to finish the profiles, I quickly gave human names to the rest of my brothers, Omnimon would be named Oswald, from the United States. Examon with his Oriental features name would be Ryouma Temujin. Dynasmon would be Dalen Rodriguez who had come into the states, Crusadermon would be named Camryn Kempe, and for my brothers from the Veemon line the names Magnus and Victus would suffice for Magnamon and Ulforce respectively.

I returned to the bank's camera, and put it on a loop, before going through its more recent recordings and rerecording the empty room over the time between when we had entered the building and when we had entered the net. I signaled my brothers to halt their activities, and to pull out when I sensed the humans' AI closing in on Gallantmon only for it to stop in it's tracks as Gallantmon unleashed devastating malware at it... _'He's furious.'_ He could have easily just closed down the server on the AI, instead he had chosen to release viruses on it.

I sent the pullback signal to my brothers, and in the next moment I was in the bank again; luckily the guard wasn't looking in our direction or she would have seen four fully grown humans exit the ATM. The machine shot out 1, 000 dollars in the form of green slips of paper with the number twenty on them. It would do for now, I could make more withdrawals later. Turning to my brothers I nodded, acknowledging that our mission was complete, and walked out of the building.

Omnimon P.O.V

I was equal parts worried and relieved as we exited the "bank" as Gallantmon had called it. On one hand, with this mission accomplished we could gain a place to stay and regain our footing. On the other hand, I was left to think on what to do now. I would converse with Gallantmon on what he had learned while scouring the human network for information on the Abomination.

Turning my head to look at Duftmon I began to ask, "Duftmon, do you have any idea why Gallantmon…" I paused as I tried to politely define what had happened.

"Went crazier than a Piedmon who couldn't play his favorite tricks?" Ulforce finished, ignoring my attempt at decorum, hands cradling the back of his head.

"It might have had to do with the disappearance of most of the data from the country known as Japan," Duftmon offered, sending an almost annoyed glance at Ulforce for his interruption.

I pondered this, lack of data usually meant a lack of humans in the human world, and considering the fact that the country of Japan in other realities usually had plenty of data, something had caused the humans to flee en masse… If so, that meant not only was Gallantmon mad, Alphamon, and Sleipmon would soon join him. I could not win anything today, could I?

"We're here," Magnamon said breaking me out of my reverie. I entered to see that Gallantmon was sitting alone on the couch and the other Knights were trying to discreetly get as far away from him as possible. Given the fact that Alphamon and Sleipmon were among the larger group, Gallantmon had not yet told anyone the reason for his displeasure. For some reason that did not fill me with confidence or relieve my worry.

"Duftmon, give the money to Sleipmon and tell him to get us the necessary lodgings. We will split up into three groups of three and one group of four. I'll bunk with Gallantmon and Alphamon. Duftmon, you will bunk with Dynasmon and Crusadermon. Ulforce and Magnamon will bunk with Gankoomon and Jesmon," I declared, my tone brokering no dissent, which is why I was surprised when I did not get a groan from Gankoomon… I could think on that later. "Examon, Craniumon, and Sleipmon will have the last room."

As Duftmon went over to Sleipmon, I made my way to the couch and sat down next to Gallantmon. "Is there any particular reason you practically destroyed that A.I., or does my dear friend, Gallantmon…" I could see him about to cut me off before taking a look around, his eyes landing on the more worn Knights before thinking better of it.

"I'll speak about what I learned after I get some rest and have calmed down," he muttered still angry, but some of the tension in his body slackened. I mentally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Omnimon, I have the keys to our rooms," Sleipmon spoke up, his eyes darting between Gallantmon and I. "Okay then, you have your bunkmates, get some rest, and be down here at…" I paused to spare a glance towards the human's digital clock, "Eight a.m."

Stepping into the human room, it was... _"Basic"_ was the best word for it. A television was mounted on the wall and there were two beds, with a little human chair in the corner of the room. Unbidden, my mouth opened and a strange sound escaped it.

"Somebody's sleepy," Alphamon said, his lazy smirk still in place. I felt my face go warm again. Damn this human body, and damn the Omega In Force for being out of reach! I would never experience such a thing as drowsiness had I still maintained it!

"Alright, then," I muttered. "I am going to bed." I made good on my statement by pulling back the covers on the bed, and slipping under them. I watched as Alphamon did the same, and expected Gallantmon to do so only for him to sit down on the human chair.

"Gallantmon, why are you sitting down on that chair, and not sleeping on the bed which Sleipmon procured for us?"

At this he buried his face into his hands, and Alphamon burst out laughing. I was taken off-guard, what was so funny?

"By Drasil, I'm not explaining this to him," Gallantmon muttered into his hands.

"Now, now," Alphamon started in what could only be a teasing tone. "He's your _dearest_ friend after all."

' _Why did he put emphasis on the "dearest" part?'_

"I am _not_ ," and he punctuated this with a finger towards Alphamon. "Explaining the Birds and Bees to him."

"Explain what to me?" I finally burst out. I was tired and whatever they were bickering about would not phase me.

They turned around as one, and told me, and it turned out I was wrong.

End 1.3

AN: This is going to be a mostly gen fic with no slash pairings other than the ones that already exist in Worm canon, and in case it isn't obvious I don't own Worm or Digimon


	5. Chapter 4: Roundabout

I woke up, full awareness returning to me immediately. I removed the covers and got out of the bed. Looking to my side, I saw Alphamon was still in bed, and above him the human clock read 6:13 A.M. Gallantmon wasn't in the bed with him. After having that conversation, I had ordered him to sleep in the same bed as Alphamon weird and stupid human preconceptions be damned.

I moved towards the door, when I looked in the mirror I finally got a good look at my human body a tan face with one blue and green eye, I had brown hair although mine wasn't a bird's nest like Alphamon's, my limbs seemed gangly almost too large the same with my legs. My God's way of referencing the duality of my data. I was the tallest of the knights bar Examon, an Orange t-shirt—

"Are you done admiring yourself?" Gallantmon spoke up. He had just left the bathroom, and his hair was still wet.

"I wasn't admiring myself," I muttered. "Just going over this form... and I'm still mad at you about that conversation last night."

"Be glad it wasn't Mr. Matsuki who explained it to you. He took out charts and diagrams, Takato was so mortified he couldn't look either Rika or Jeri in the eye for a week."

"Gallantmon, I need to talk to you about something," I started only to be cut off as Alphamon made a grumbling noise.

"Good, because I have to tell you something as well, however let's not wake Alphamon."

Stepping outside of the building, I sent a glance towards Gallantmon. "Is there any reason we can't talk about this inside?"

"We'll get to talk about what I wanted to later, and we have two hours to spare before we have to meet with our brothers, so what did you want to talk about?" he said as he started walking off at a brisk pace.

Mentally questioning the gate even as I caught up to him, I decided to focus on business. "I need a report on how the other Knights are doing."

At this he shot me a surprised glance. "You really _are_ off balance, aren't you?" If any other Digimon had said that it would have been a slight, with Gallantmon it was a note of surprise with concern underlying it.

"Where to begin?" he sighed, glancing up to the sky. "Craniumon should be your main concern right now." At my confused glance, he elaborated. "Craniumon has always been proud about his position as our God's Shield, yes? Well, that Abomination took the all the pride he held from holding a position when the Demon Lords' Armies bearing down on him and smashed it to pieces." He paused to sigh. "I believe he takes Yggdrasils fall as his own fault personally."

"That's ridiculous!" I exclaimed, my heightened voice causing some birds to fly away. "We all failed our God not just him!"

"Yes, but where your data is taken from the concept of The End and mine from The Hazard and Germanic Myth, his was taken from the concept of being a Shield. And right now the one he's supposed to protect is in a near death state," Gallantmon sharply rebuked.

I closed my eyes. Craniumon would have to regain his confidence, _'He will be Our God's watcher again,'_ I decided. _'It will be spending most of his time guarding the few portals leading to the Digital World in this world's data network. But also the job he longs for and fears most.'_

"What about the others?" I asked, some strange behavior from my brothers coming back to me. As I waited for him to reply, we neared a joining in the road, I stopped with Gallantmon when the light perpendicular to us turned green causing the humans to move in their cars.

"Honestly… You've done well with how you paired Jesmon with Gankoomon," he said, causing me to tear my eyes away from the humans driving by. Taking my reaction for what it was, he continued, "You didn't notice Gankoomon's _distinct_ lack of bitching when you paired everyone together?"

"I noticed, I merely assumed he was too exhausted to bother." However, even as I said that I was rolling the statement around in my head. "I really am off balance," I muttered causing Gallantmon to exhale through his nose quickly.

"I've noticed. Anyway, it's probably due to the lack of the Sistermon." I thought on that. The Sistermon were always with Gankoomon, whether he was in Yggdrasil's presence or in the Dark Zone.

"Are you suggesting that the reason he's not complaining is that he's latched onto Jesmon because he's familiar? Like a…"

"Koala Bear latching onto a tree branch." Seeing my confused look he elaborated, "It's some type of human world mam—You know what? Nevermind, basically he's using Jesmon as a Security Blanket. Keep them together and you won't have any problems with Gankoomon for about a week. Although… If you would rather him back to normal now, you should probably bring up the fact he's mother henning Jesmon." There was a glint of mischief in Gallantmon's eye as he suggested it.

"I'm perfectly fine with the way he is now." I shot a grin towards Gallantmon before it faded. "Although I wish his demeanor was caused by a better situation."

"Don't we all?" he muttered before taking off at a brisk pace once the light turned red. "As for the others... I don't know Alphamon _nearly_ enough to notice any different behavior. Gankoomon's situation also applies to Crusadermon and Dynasmon, although theirs is more mutual and based on well how they work together as a team. For the rest of our brothers, I recommend one thing. Give them something to work towards. That will let them gain their footing.

"And yourself?" I asked, noticing how he stumbled at my question.

"What about me?" he muttered, making his way towards an area where humans were gathering with cameras.

"The other knights may not notice it, but you've gone from goofy to sarcastic to serious in your mannerisms in the span of one day." At this, he stopped and turned to me. "I am the Gallantmon who you killed during the execution of the X-Program. I am also the Gallantmon that was created by the dreams and wishes of Takato Matsuki. While at the same time I am the Gallantmon who invaded the human world due to the actions of Kurata. What I'm getting at is when I am asked a question or I need to react to something I have three lifetimes of experience pushing at me to act in different ways."

"Then why don't I or the other Knights have this problem?" I asked. All of my brothers were made from the conjoined data of multiple versions of themselves from other realities, yet I had none of the problems Gallantmon was implying.

"Because the Royal Knight Omnimon has always acted as you are now." I flinched at this, a spark of fury welled up before I pushed it down.

"Be that as it may, Gallantmon, in all realities in that we serve as Royal Knights you are my friend, and I am worried about you, just as I'm worried about our brothers," I spoke looking at him straight in the eyes.

"Ahh… You _do_ care, Omnimon," he laughed, scratching the back of his head. We were back to goofy it seemed. "Oh, by the way," he muttered, "I need you to promise me that you won't react to what's about to happen for about five minutes, alright?"

"I promise," I agreed, confused as to why he seemed so nervous, it wasn't like anything threatening was ne—

My head snapped back to humans as I sensed the Abomination my arm raising up, code starting to swirl around it as it started to shift into the Garuru Cannon. Only for Gallantmon's hand to stop my arm in mid rise and clamp down on it with a vice grip.

"Momentai, Omnimon, you said you wouldn't react remember?" he hissed.

"Can you not feel that?" I snapped at him, "The Abomination is almost right on top of us."

"Look again," he said, eyes fixed back on the humans.

I turned my eyes back to the humans and to where I could sense the Abomination approaching only for my eyes to widen in shock as a human dressed in a… What was he wearing? ...It looked to be a full bodysuit colored red and orange. The humans had started clicking their cameras, white flashes dancing from the flashes of their cameras.

The human glanced down and continued flying over. It wasn't the Abomination, that was for sure. Where its presence rivaled my God's, this one was a shadow, a pale imitation at best. My mind raced before I turned to Gallantmon.

"What did you learn yesterday?" I asked, forcing myself to remain calm.

"Come on. Let's head back to the lobby, I'm not explaining this more than once." And with that, he spun around and walked back towards the hotel, leaving me to catch up to him.

End 1.4


	6. Chapter 5: Carry on my Wayward Mons

1.5 : Carry on My Wayward Mons

I sat down, Gallantmon taking a seat across from me with our food. I had eggs, coffee, and a human pastry, while Gallantmon had seen fit to make himself a "waffle" and had grabbed multiple human pastries and some coffee to go with it. He was already drooling a bit. He was firmly the Gallantmon of Takato Matsuki. I saw him clap his hands together to give thanks for the meal.

I started eating only to be interrupted as Alphamon plopped down, only for his face to hit the table with a muffled groan.

"Omnimon, look it's a Mummymon!" At this Alphamon looked up, fixing Gallantmon with a glare, he reached across the table and grabbed Gallantmon's coffee and chugged it down.

Ignoring Gallantmon's outrage, he turned to me and his eyes flickered towards my coffee. I pushed it towards him. Instead of chugging it down like he did Gallantmon's, he grabbed three pink packages and tore them open to pour them into the drink.

"This will have to do," he muttered, absently stirring the procured drink.

"When did you become a caffeine addict?" Gallantmon wondered.

"Around the same time you decided to worship Bread as your new God," he shot back.

"Are you talking bad about the Matsuki Bakery? Because if so I may accidently do my best impression of Belphamon Rage Mode."

"Oh, you mean the rage dragon of destruction that you can't become anymore?"

"As much as I care about this conversation which is... _Wait. No... I really don't. Let me eat in peace you two, that's an order!_ " My fists rattled the table briefly before I completed my statement by eating some of my eggs.

"Ahh... Omnimon don't kill the comedy routine, it just started!" Ulforce chirped as he sat down at the next table. Magnamon followed him, sending me a glance that conveyed the same suffering my eyes must have held.

"Good morning, Omnimon, Alphamon, Gallantmon," Magnamon greeted us while smacking Ulforce on the back of the head and ignoring his squawk of surprise.

I thought on what Magnamon and Ulforce presence meant if they were up Jesmon and Ganko—

"Trouble in paradise, fearless leader?" Gankoomon drawled, taking a seat at the table on my other side. Jesmon, who was following him, let out a long sigh.

 _I can't win, Yggdrasil dammit._ "Good morning, Jesmon," I said, ignoring Gankoomon completely.

"To you too, Omnimon," he replied, instantly brightening. _Yggdrasil bless him._

As Gankoomon opened his mouth to continue, he was cut off by a deep voice. "Gankoomon, it is too early in the morning for your antics," Examon snapped, instantly silencing Gankoomon's continued bitching. Craniumon flanked him silent and somber. I exchanged glances with Gallantmon, who paused in consuming his fifth pastry to meet my eyes. He shrugged before continuing in consuming his food. _That was helpful_.

"Where's Sleipmon?" Magnamon asked.

"I was curious about that too," I said, directing this towards the newly arrived pair.

"He's taking a shower," Craniumon spoke, his voice as deep as Examon's.

 _At least he's talking..._

Okay, I had nine out of thirteen of my brothers here, it was time to move onto more important matters.

"Everybody grab a plate of food for yourselves, Dyansmon, Crusadermon, Duftmon, and Sleipmon. Gallantmon has something to tell us all."

This was less than ideal, but it would have to do. We were all cramped in Examon's room. Crusadermon was still glaring at Gankoomon who had yanked the "comb" out of his hand and dragged him out of the room.

"Gallantmon, it's time to tell us what you learned yesterday." At this his whole body posture changed, his whole body going rigid.

He let me squeeze myself between Alphamon and Jesmon before he started. "In the year 1982 on May 20th of this world, the Abomination or as the world knows it, Scion, appeared."

At this all of our brothers leaned forward.

"Shortly afterwards, the humans of this world started developing powers during moments of intense stress, the humans call these "Trigger Events." Although the public is not made aware of the specifics, these "parahumans," humans who have developed powers, are separated into different categories: Brutes, Thinkers, Tinkers, Movers, Changers, Strangers, Trumps, Shakers, Blasters, Masters, Strikers, and Breakers. Any given parahuman can fall under multiple categories.

"Brutes as the name suggest gain physical based powers with the strongest recorded Brute being Alexandria of the Triumvirate, a group known as the strongest heroes. Has been shown to be able to shatter buildings with punches along with extreme invulnerability.

"Movers, can alter their location, by enhanced speed or other means, with Legend another hero of the group called the Triumvirate being the fastest recorded Mover."

"I'm enjoying the history lesson I am," Gankoomon butted in, ignoring our brothers' glares, "but what does this have to do with anything."

"It matters," I snapped, all but growling, "because Gallantmon and I encountered one of these parahumans, and they felt like the Abomination, and you will let Gallantmon finish, Gankoomon!"

"Don't worry, I'll be finishing shortly. Thinkers gain mental based abilities, able to gather information quickly. Changers can alter their body in some way. Tinkers are able to make complex machinery. Trumps powers interact only with other powers, such as in response to situation, as is the case with Eidolon, the final member of the Triumvirate, being the strongest recorded Trump. Masters are able to make or control other beings. Shakers can control their surroundings through a variety of means. Blasters shoot some kind of energy projectiles usually.

"Breakers are described as simply being able to rewrite the laws of reality. Strikers can affect things they can touch. And Strangers have powers that make them hard to detect in some way, either affecting mental perceptions or some other way."

As Gallantmon finished, Duftmon leaned forward even more, steepling his fingers in front of his mouth. "What's the number on the parahuman population?"

"Unknown, all that I know is that they're on every continent with human habitation, and their powers are probably gotten from the Abomination. Although they aren't a unified force with "capes" either becoming a hero, a villain, or "going rogue" and using their power to make a living. And here is the kicker: The Abomination, it's regarded worldwide as the greatest hero."

At this my eyes closed in frustration, and I resisted the urge to destroy the wall beside me. My brothers merely cursed with Gankoomon being the loudest, and Duftmon closing his eyes, mind probably working furiously toward a plan.

 _We couldn't even move towards the Abomination without being attacked by the rest of the humans. And that was making the assumption that it didn't kill us outright… Think, Omnimon!_

My eyes snapped open. "Gallantmon, are there any great threats towards this world?"

At this his eyes darkened. "Yes, there are great threats to the world. The world has dubbed them S class threats, however the main three that are the main cause for worry: the Endbringers.

"Behemoth is described as a large golem creature with one eye, and it's called the "Hero Killer." It exudes radiation and has shown near mastery over energy, _every type of energy_. It simply walks towards it's target in a straight path, never deviating. It first appeared on Dec 13, 1992 at Muran Field.

"The Simurgh is described as being fifteen feet tall, and looks like a human girl with avian appearance, almost like Angewomon. In her first appearance she caused the city to go mad, and mind controlled the humans into committing atrocities. She specialized in Telepathy and Telekinesis. _She_ first appeared on Dec 31, 2002 over Lausanne, Switzerland.

"The final member of these monsters is called _Leviathan."_ He spat the name out. "Think Leviamon only shorter, and can change between bipedal and quadrupedal. Notable atrocities include the sinking of Kyushu November 3, 1999, while pummeling the rest of the nation with tsunamis. It killed 9.5 million people and turned the country into a third world in the span of a day." He was about to continue on before we heard a cracking sound. Ulforce had snapped the bed post under his grip. Alphamon had crushed his coffee, I could feel some of the liquid soaking through my shirt, and Sleipmon had gone still.

"Sorry for the interruption," Ulforce muttered. "Continue."

"I am done, Ulforce," Gallantmon stated, perhaps as surprised by his reaction as the rest of us.

I closed my eyes. I needed to think, this whole situation… _No, this WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD is batshit insane! The Humans flew around fighting each other with labels such as "hero" and "villain." All the while, monsters kill indiscriminately, and to make things worse we can't even make a move towards the Abomination because it is this world's greatest defender..._

"Gallantmon," I began, a half-formed idea spinning itself before me. "What is the nearest location with the highest "cape" population?"

"A place called Brockton Bay," he said. I could feel my brother's attention on me. I ran through the plan gaining more details in my head.

"If the world will never accept Digimon as Monsters, they'll accept us as Heroes."

End 1.5

Please Review or PM any questions you guys have also I don't own Worm or Digimon


	7. Interlude 1: Various

Eidolon

I stepped out of Doormaker's portal, and watched as Rebecca stepped through another one with Legend following her.

"Do you know why we're here?" Legend asked.

"It probably has to do with all of our precogs fainting or experiencing migraines and caused us to flood their systems with painkillers."

"You don't think Contessa…" He trailed off at this.

It was a worrying thought. Legend may not have known all of Cauldron's activities, but he knew that Contessa was a huge part in Cauldron's plans.

"She is the strongest Thinker we have. It makes sense she was affected the most," Rebecca offered.

"Do we have any movements on the Simurgh?" I asked. It was the only being we knew of that could cause this much mental damage, and that in itself was worrying. It's never shown that it's range could reach this far. Unfortunately, this also suggested that in all our encounters it had been toying with us if it could casually disable all of the Thinkers in the world.

"No, we don't have any movement from the Simurgh." Doctor Mother stated, meeting us in the hallway. She had dark circles under her eyes suggesting that she had been been awake the whole 48 hours since this clusterfuck had started.

At least _that_ worry could be put to rest. Although that brought up an even more worrisome problem. What kind of parahuman could do such a thing? And why?

Doctor Mother tapped her ear, accepting whoever was trying to call her. "We need to move, she's waking up."

I flanked Rebecca as we walked through the hallway. Finally, we could get an answer to this whole situation.

As we entered the room, I could see Contessa looking wide-eyed, her pupils expanded. "The Path… It's smaller, but it's darker, like… Something changed… What changed?" She was muttering this to herself constantly.

I exchanged glances with Rebecca, and Legend. Nothing could ever be simple, could it?

Dragon

At hours long after any sane biological individual who needed sleep would have gone to bed, Dragon was wide awake trying to make sense of the internet based attack that had occurred earlier in the week.

It had started off benign, if annoying, when the X-Box network had collapsed and every member forcibly locked out. Whenever anyone tried to log back in they had gotten to a firewall screen. There strange phrases like "The Internet: Needs New Wallpaper." and "What is a baby at four, a toddler at eight, a child at twelve, an adult at sixteen, reaches perfection at twenty, becomes their ultimate power at twenty-four, then proceeds to go everywhere and nowhere?"

However, the riddle that had transfixed the majority of the world was written right above a dialogue prompt. "This was a relative of mine's favorite riddle: What number is Taichi and Zeromaru combined?"

It had taken users fifteen minutes of random entry attempts to find the answer to be "100," though variations such as "One Hundred" and "100%" were also accepted. The latter had even gotten a heart and a "V" sign to appear as the user was let back onto the network. After the correct answer had been found it had quickly spread across different internet forums… At least the ones they could get too.

All traffic that _had_ been going to PHO, had been rerouted to a Digital Media website. They actually had some nice pieces, and as such Dragon had bookmarked the site for later perusal… After making sure that it wasn't a way for someone to upload viruses.

Still "Taichi," a Japanese name that meant "Magnificent One," and "Zeromaru," "Maru," again being a Japanese word, this one meaning "Circle," though it had sometimes been used as a colloquial term for "Zero." So the "Magnificent One-Zero-Zero," it sounded like a child's joke. But the level of skill shown by how quickly the hacker, or _hackers_ , had brought down the network spoke of a great deal of skill or knowledge of the X-box's systems and weaknesses… _Or both_.

Hm… could the Japanese be important? It wasn't used nearly as much as it had been before Leviathan's visit, or as much as it was used on Alph. Thus it could signify a level of pride at either being Japanese or at understanding the language well enough to make a somewhat obscure pun. A sign of the hacker's own brilliance… _Or, more accurately, ego_.

And then there was the fact that whomever it had been had allowed random inputs without penalty. They had been able to knock down every single X-box in an instant, but seemed to do nothing with that achievement. No one had yet claimed responsibility for it on the usual hacker forums, nor had there been unusual activity from any of the X-box accounts.

Which meant that as she had initially expected, it was a distraction. So could the Japanese be a false lead intended as the X-Box dropping had been. That much had been clear when she had gone out to investigate and come across another web crawler program. It's interactions were unbelievable. She was able to react faster than any non-parahuman mover, and even then most wouldn't have been tech-savvy enough to send malware at her the instant they had been connected to the same server. The data hadn't even been that top secret.

And when the server had crashed, she had been forced to reboot from backup. That thought scared her. There weren't too many individuals that could claim to have forced her into a corner before. And of them, only one was a hacker. Saint. They had clashed nine times in the past, but always in the physical world. In the internet she held a much greater edge. But had this all been a test? A trap to draw her out and test a new way to fight her? Was even the internet going to be taken from her?

Saint

"What does it think?" I asked Mags.

She glanced up from the computer. "It thinks we did it."

I sighed at this. "I wish. The processing speed required to simultaneously crash multiple Xbox's then flood the internet with riddles, and top it off by casually demolishing Dragon was something that we wish we could do in five minutes."

Still that speed, while impressive, was extremely worrying. It was almost as if another A.I. ...That was ridiculous. If another A.I. had been made, Dragon would have picked up on it, and the Tinker who made it would have have spent some hefty resources to make it. Still the thought was worrying.

"Mags, I want you and the others to go over Dragon's data feeds from the past three days. I want to know everything, it could be just a bunch of Tinkers who decided to play a practical joke, but if you see anything that suggests Dragon encountered another A.I., alert me immediately.

Dragon was an asset. It was chained, and it dedicated itself to be a hero. However, if there were unchained A.I with none of Dragon's coding to direct them it would be a disaster. However they had taken down rogue A.I.'s before and they could do it again.

So this ends the first arc of the Worm Protocol, here's a sneak peek for the next arc.

"I'm just an ordinary highschool student."

"I'm going on a date...She said her name was Contessa."

"Dr. Magnus, this is Amy Dallon, also known as Panacea."

"You can't be serious! They're experimenting on humans!" "Ignore them, Mommy and Daddy are just having a marital disagreement."


	8. Chapter 6: Groundwork

_Worm Protocol 2.1: Groundwork_

Location: Earth Bet, Brockton Bay, New Hampshire

Date: August 15, 2010. 10:00 AM

"You're going to "School," Idiot Student," Master said as he kicked the door open, and arms laden with groceries. Not his usual greeting, but I had received weirder. Most of those were the beginnings of incidents I had sworn to never mention again. Would this be similar?

I looked up from the book I was reading. "Master, I didn't know humans knew High Coding?"

"No, not the School the Wizardmon run, from what I've gathered it's much more boring. You'll learn stuff like how and why the humans have killed each other, and stuff involving numbers." He put down the groceries on the small table in our room.

"But why? I can learn whatever humans know in about five minutes, just give me access to a computer!"

"Well there's a couple reason. Apparently, it's odd for humans under the age of twenty not to go to this "School" of theirs. Two, I will not have you sitting on your ass for five months while the rest of us are working." _'Because, of course, that's_ _ **your**_ _job.'_ I mentally added, suppressing the smirk out of long habit. Thought he still glared. "Three, out of all of us—even Crusadermon, _and that is saying something_ —you understand human's the least, and that right there, Idiot Student, is something that's going to change." Drat, he was set on this.

"Okay, what do I need to do?" Humans probably didn't let just _anyone_ into this school of theirs.

"As you said just five seconds ago, you will go to the computer and learn everything the average "sophomore" does."

"Sophomore?" I asked, humans had really weird names for things. Really, "Clever Fool"? Master must be having a field day.

"Yes, apparently this High-School you will be going to is split up into four years. First years are called Freshman. The second years are called Sophomores. The third years are called Juniors, and the Fourth Years are called Seniors. By the way, Idiot Student, catch," he said as he flung a canister at my head. In an instant, Por had manifested above my head responding to the unknown object piercing it and spilling a sticky brown liquid on me. " _That_ is going to stop right now."

"You being an asshole? Because this stuff on me suggests differently." I snapped.

"No, Idiot Student, I meant your dependence on your constructs when you're in human form to defend yourself." I was not agreeing to that, though I did note he hadn't denied being an asshole. "Apparently, humans at the ages of sixteen and seventeen are like you when you were BaoHuckmon."

"So kind, respectful, and thoughtful?" I asked with total sincerity, while running my hands through my hair trying to get the substance out.

"No you were never like that. I remember you trying to stab me in the face after I sent you on that errand. You were such a troublesome student." He said that like it only happened _once_. Then again, there was only one he ever bothered to mention.

"That probably had something to do with the "errand" you sent me on being stealing that Kuwagamon's honey. They chased me through three forests, and I almost died!" I retorted. "And all just so you could eat it."

"Nonsense, Idiot Student, didn't you learn Evasion, Tactics, and Endurance? Me actually eating that honey was just an unexpected bonus," he said with a wistful tone of voice as if remembering the taste, the bastard. "Anyways, Idiot Student, the fact of the matter is humans can't manifest rip offs of Himukamuy, so no bringing your three pets, and no putting humans through walls or breaking their legs, their species is very fragile."

"No they're not! One punched out Yggdrasil's avatar! There is no way I was leaving Atho, Rene, and Por and going to an unknown location with multiple beings of that power!"

"First off, Idiot Student, If the human known as Marcus Daimon is considered an average human, I doubt the Abomination would be a problem. It also makes that attack even _dumber_ than it turned out to be. Second, _tough shit_! Not only am _I_ ordering you to leave them behind, _Duftmon_ is as well!"

All fight in me died at that statement. Duftmon out of all of us had been the most helpful during our time here. He had made our identities, helped Gallantmon, or Kaji as he was known as, set up the bakery, and had made sure the knights could get various jobs. Even getting _Gankoomon_ a job at the local dojo, which Master needed so he didn't go stir crazy.

"Okay, okay, I get it! Just what is this school called anyway?" I asked tiredly

"Should I be offended that it's Duftmon that gets you to agree and not your amazing teacher?"

He ignored my cough of, "Minotarumonshit."

"Anyway, it's called Winslow High, Moronic Student, and tomorrow morning you will be Shawn Kim son of the great Gary Kim," he continued, ignored the gagging sound I made at the "great", "and will begin your human life as a ordinary high school student."

Brockton Bay General Hospital 3 pm

Magnamon P.O.V

I looked at the chief of medicine in front of me. He was a short man with white hair on top of his head, he had a wide grin on his face.

"My name is Bob Kelso, and it is my great pleasure to welcome you to Brockton General Hospital. I hope one such as yourself will become a fully licensed doctor again, Mr. Villa."

"Neither can I Dr. Kelso." I was lying through my teeth. I had rarely healed, and I had simply picked this occupation so I could observe the parahumans here. I shook his hand, careful not to put too much pressure on it.

"Here let me introduce you to your fellow co-workers." As we navigated around the halls I noticed a lack of patients lying in the beds, obvious evidence of the fact that a parahuman healer worked here. The human noticed my glance to the empty beds beside us.

"Oh, I assume you're curious about the lack of patients. That's the work our resident healer, Amy Dallon or Panacea."

""Panacea," or a fix to all ills. Appropriate for a healer. I've heard about her, I said although I'm wondering why I'm even needed here when you have such a miracle worker."

At this his smile became strained. _It seemed I had touched a nerve._ "Although, Mrs. Dallon has great power she is still just a teenage girl, and as such can't be in two places at once. Unfortunately, you will still have plenty of work here," Soon enough, we entered the right wing of the hospital where many beds were filled. But not only that I could feel it. I restrained my urge to shift to my digital form, and eradicate the mere presence of the Abomination.

"Ahh, there she is right over there." She looked small was the first thing I noticed about her. There was no expression on her face as she put her hand on a patient and I assumed that she healed them. Was she bored, or just tired?

"Mrs. Dallon, let me please introduce you to our newest employee, Mr. Villa."

As I walked up to her I could make out more of her features, a face with freckles was overshadowed by curly locks of brown hair. The shadows under her eyes took away from her appearance though.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Dallon." I offered my hand, crushing the urge to destroy the Abominations presence once again. "I hope I can be of help to this hospital."

"I'm sure you will be, Mr. Villa." she replied forcing a small smile to her face.

Brockton Bay Knights Apartment Complex

11:00 PM

Duftmon P.O.V

I was scouring the webs at a staggering speed. Tracking down the world's history, the parahumans that inhabited it, and any footage that I could find on the Abomination played across my eyes. I saw it get arrested for nudity. I saw it calm a hurricane with that same golden blast that had almost destroyed my God. Nothing, that revealed a weakness. Even these Endbringers were driven off by it, but it never pursued them. It made no sense. I tried to decipher its goal. Its presence in the parahumans gave away that the human's powers were from it, but it merely went around the world saving people, yet never taking out the largest threats when it could.

I rubbed my hands against my face what was I missing? I forced myself to focus, perhaps I was looking at this from the wrong angle. I pulled up the files on the parahumans again, and went over them. Interesting, Case 53's were a deviance from the normal parahumans unlike their other brethren. They took on inhuman appearances when they gained powers, but that wasn't my main point of interest. Most case 53's that appeared shared a similar story, they had no memory and without fail they had a brand of a C tattooed on them. I ran the symbol through an search function. It was a greek symbol, but that wasn't the main selling point, "What's Cauldron?" I muttered as I ran the name through the world's database… I stared blankly at the screen. Omnimon needed to know about this immediately.

End 2.1

So this arc isn't going to be action-oriented it's mostly going to be laying the groundwork for sub-plots, and establishing the knights as actual characters rather than the villains every digimon series likes to portray them as it seems


	9. Chapter 7: Screw the Rules

2.2: Screw the Orders, I'm Doing What's Right

Winslow High 7:45 A.M. Monday

I stared at the school building in front of me with growing apprehension. Around me students streamed into the school building. I looked down at a paper, clutched tightly in my hands. _"At 8:00 A.M you are to report to principal Blackwell's office to receive your schedule."_ My eyes narrowed at the sticky note attached to it. " _Don't screw this up, Idiot Student. I have money riding on this."_

"Okay then, follow the people, Jesmon," I muttered under my breath, acutely feeling the loss of Atho, Por, and Rene. I entered the door ignoring the strange glances being sent my way by the other students. ' _What did I do? Have I screwed up already?_ I looked down to see if anything was wrong with my appearance. _Goggles check, Blue jeans check, t-shirt check, red scarf check. Backpack with pencils, pens, and books check._ I looked around, where was the "principal's office"? Maybe somebody else would know.

"Excuse me could you tell me where Principle Blackwell's office is? The bald kid looked up from where he was talking to three other bald guys. "Fuck off, raghead," he he said as he walked off.

' _But I don't have a rag on my head, and that was rude.'_ I sighed he had already left, and Duftmon had told me to maintain a low profile. Okay then, guess I just had to look for it on my own. I went down the hallway before glancing to my left, and my right. There it was the gold writing had a stain over it so it was kinda hard to read, but I could make out the words easy enough. "Principal's office."

I walked down the hallway entering the room. I stepped into the office, and tensed as I felt the Abomination's presence somewhere inside the room. There was a woman typing on a computer, not the source. "Excuse me," I spoke up. Remembering the manners that Gallantmon had taught me. "I'm looking for Principal Blackwell, I was told to report to her office for my schedule." The woman looked up from her screen.

"Oh, you must be Shawn Kim, the new transfer student," she said with a smile on her face.

"Yes ma'am, that's me," I replied with a smile. It was important to make a good impression after all.

"She'll be seeing you shortly, she's in a meeting right now." At this I nodded, and sat down on the seat, I gripped the armrests a bit tightly as I sensed the presence approach. A door opened, and a teenaged human with dark skin stepped out. She sent a glance at me before walking out of the room.

"Principal Blackwell will see you now." I nodded and stood up and stepped into the back room.

Principal Blackwell was thin her blonde hair looked like an upside down bowl the way it was cut. "Have a seat, Mr. Kim." She gestured me to sit down, once I had sat down she started talking again. "I get that this must be strange for you, being in a completely different country, however from what we've seen from the records you had when you did attend regular schooling—"

I began to lose track of what she was saying as my mind raced. ' _What is she talking about? Just what did you put in my records, Duftmon?'_ Then I realized something else. _'…Dammit, Master, you were supposed to tell me weren't you?'_ She had asked me something. I nodded my head in agreement while I figured out how Justice would be done. _'We'll see how you like it when you have a bucket of ice water dumped on you at 5 in the morning.'_

However, my attention returned as her voice was raised. "Foreigner or no, I will not tolerate any disobedience on your part."

"Trust me, ma'am, I'll be on my best behavior while I'm here." I had my orders, and I wouldn't jeopardize Operation Lifprasir—not when my brothers were counting me.

"Good, now here's your schedule. A student will be here shortly to guide you." I looked over my classes I choked back a laugh as I saw my home room teacher and the subject. _Computers, taught by a Mrs. Knott._ I had math with a Mr. Quinslow, World Studies... with a Mr. Gladly, then lunch _...Eh, heh, eh, I forgot to pack food, they sell some here, right?_ Then I had "P.E." and then I finished the day with literature. I looked at my Thursday classes. I still had my homeroom class, then "Chemistry" with a Mr. Dunlap, and Grammar with a Mr. Trebble, and Mandarin with Mr. Chang.

I looked up as the door opened. It was a girl. She was tall I noticed, a bit gangly, and she had a hopeful expression on her face. She had freckles on her face with wavy black hair. However, when she noticed me that hope died in her eyes. ' _What did I do?'_

"Ms. Hebert, this is Shawn Kim. You share most of his classes so you will be his guide for the day."

"Hello, I'm Taylor, it's a pleasure." ' _She doesn't seem to mean it.'_ She sent a betrayed expression towards the principal. Still, I couldn't let this keep me down.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Shawn." I made sure to smile widely, and that brought a slight grin to her face. _'Success!'_

"We should probably get going. Class starts in ten minutes," She said, before turning around, and walking out, and I followed behind her.

Lunch

My head hit the table with an audible thud. "I'm so bored," I groaned, "you have to do this everyday except for Saturday and Sunday?" I asked. "How can you do it?" I said, looking up at Taylor.

"I'm sure you'll manage somehow." She said without any sign of caring.

"How can you be so cruel?" I groaned. She merely chuckled and at this I suppressed a grin on my face. My guide had been really helpful, she was a bit quiet, and still she needed to smile more often... Then there was the matter of those projectiles I had caught during second period. They were disgusting, and I doubt they would look good on a person.

Still that could wait, I had food to eat, it didn't look appetizing at all though. Still, it physically couldn't be as bad as Master's cooking. There was a _reason_ we always ate in Kaji's room. I took a bite of it… _Ugh_ , definitely not as bad as Master's cooking, but it was a close second. Taylor noticed my expression, and giggled again. Well, I could suffer through it. Then Taylor''s grin disappeared, and I felt the Abomination's presence.

"Oh hey, you must be the new transfer student." I turned around. There were three girls. One had red hair, standing to her left, was the dark skinned girl who was in the principal's office, and to her right was the girl who had sent those projectiles at Taylor. The red haired girl put her arms under her chest. I didn't understand the motion but that didn't matter.

"I'm Emma Barnes, to my right is Madison Clements, and to my left is Sophia. We were wondering if you would like to come sit with us during lunch." I pondered this, while being at school was to learn about humans It didn't specify that I had to be around the Abomination, and I had already sat down.

"But I already have a seat?" I made sure it came out as a question. "So does that mean you'd sit down here, I mean there are enough free seats…"

"Ah, no," the girl, Emma said. She was leaning forward a bit, arms still hugging her waist. "See, we have some _other_ friends that we were planning on sitting with. And it just so happened that we could squeeze one more person in. And since you were new, we thought you might like the chance to make some more friends. Taylor here isn't the most outgoing person in the world."

That… didn't seem too bad, though it seemed odd that they weren't inviting Taylor, almost like... they were excluding her. How many times had I seen this play out in my own world? Was this some human power play? Setting the limits to the outsider. Conform and get the benefits, whatever those were. Don't and suffer the penalty. And for whatever reason, Taylor was on the outs.

But just to exclude her because she wasn't the most outgoing? That seemed rather strange. Other Digimon loved sister Blac despite the fact that she rarely talked. There's something more here I know that, but still these people had been hostile to Taylor, and she had just took it, surely she could rejoin the group, anything else would just be malice… Oh, that sealed it then. I'd try one more time, and if they rejected the offer… Well, I was better off without them.

"Nah I'm pretty comfortable here, and Taylor may be shy, but she isn't bad to hang around, you could invite your other friends over here. Like I said there's' plenty of room at this table."

At this, Sophia scoffed, and said "Come on Ems, the freak isn't going to leave. Let the losers hang with their own kind." At this Emma sighed, and sent me one last smile before turning around moving her hips in a strange way as she left. The other two following her in a more normal fashion.

' _Malice it is then,'_ I decided. How was _I_ a freak when she had the Abomination's presence in her? That thing meant she was definitely _not_ normal. I began to eat again when I noticed Taylor was looking at me strangely. "Taylor I've been wondering... Is there something wrong with my appearance? People have been looking at me strangely all day."

"Why did you do that?" She asked completely ignoring my question. I sighed, I really wanted her to answer it too.

"You mean stay at this table?" I asked she nodded at me. Hmm I could work with this.

"Tell me what's wrong with my appearance, and then I'll answer your question." At this if possible she started looking at me like I was something she had never seen before.

"It probably has something to do that you're wearing a red scarf in August when it's seventy degrees outside, not mention the goggles." At this I made an offended noise.

"Hey my goggles are great, and my scarf too! I've had this since I was a Ro—Child, and I'm not taking them off."

"Okay, I answered your question now answer mine," She said, ignoring the bait I had laid, drat.

"Do I really need a reason? I doubt they can do anything to me," I hadn't sensed active digisoul in any of them so I doubted one was going to punch through the building. And well, if they did, I'd just have to escalate to match.

"You say that now, but they've made my life a hellhole, and I doubt you'll stick around when that starts." At this I scoffed, there was no way they could be as bad as Master.

"Taylor, let me tell you something this whole experience of coming to this country has been new to me. However, nothing is going to change the fact that I wouldn't hurt someone's feeling who's just been nice to me simply to avoid trouble." I smiled at her again flashing my teeth at her and giving her a thumbs up sign, that I had seen Ulforce do.

She smiled at me, before opening her mouth to say something before the bell cut her off.

P.E

I stepped out of the building onto the field, rather confused, in the locker room the guys with no hair had called me "gay," and while I _was_ happy I didn't doubt they meant that as an insult. One I didn't get. Still I looked around, there was a field of grass laid out around it was a oval shaped ring of red stuff with white paint dividing it to four pieces. I had left my goggles, and scarf in my backpack making sure to fold it. My inner musings was cut off as the adult came out.

"Okay, everybody, listen up! you know the drill four laps around the track, then recreational activities after you're done. ' _Oh, this is a race.'_ That made things easier, although I didn't know what "recreational activities" were. Still I doubt my real speed would be acceptable under human limits. ' _I'll just keep pace with the person who's in front of them all.'_ Master would give me _so_ much crap if I had lost to humans, and even more if I won while exposing my abilities.

As we all lined up I was at the end of them, but I wasn't worried.

3..

I got in a stance I had seen human runners do.

2.

I controlled my breathing, my legs tensing.

1.

I envisioned the goal at the end.

Go.

As one, everybody shot off including me, I quickly passed the bald kids and the others before falling into a nicely paced sprint with Sophia. "So," I asked in between breaths, easily keeping pace with her as we easily distanced ourselves from everybody. "How am I freak?" She snarled at me. "Come now, use your words," I imitated Master's tone.

"Shut up, you freak!" She shouted, causing her to falter and drop behind me slightly.

"See? We're getting somewhere!" I chirped. "Now just answer the question and I'll stop bugging you." _'There, I'm establishing myself as physically superior to you, I know your type now it all depends on how you respond.'_

She simply put on another burst of speed outpacing me a bit, before I caught up to her, we passed the other kids at the back, and I could see some glares being sent my way by the bald kids who had called me gay.

Still Sophia hadn't responded, _great she's a stubborn one then,_ We continued neck in neck for the next two laps, and on the third lap while we were passing the rest of the students, the rest of them jogging. A foot lashed out tripping me. I tumbled to the ground, before turning my fall into a roll. _'Who had done that?'_ My unknown assailant wasn't the worst thing, Sophia now had some good ground on me. I shot off the distance closing quickly, I caught up to her at the corner. As I passed her I sent what Ulforce called a "shit-eating grin", and quickly outpaced her and completed my four laps. However, the look the adult sent at me turned any good feelings I had to ash quicker than Master announcing that he had cooked dinner.

"Son, you just completed a mile in 4:45, have you ran Track or Distance before?" Well good he wasn't accusing me of being a Cape, but I did not need a reminder of how Master had trained my speed.

" _Student, look at the valley below. Do you see the Champions?" I did and saw multiple Tyrannomon passing through._

" _I see them, Master," I chirped back, still so naive and hopeful._

" _They are going to part of your training today." He said this with a smile that I would learn to fear._

" _How?" Tyrannomon weren't that smart. I didn't have time to think as Master picked me up in his arms and quickly sped ahead of the the pack, and we landed at the bottom of the valley, far ahead of the Tyrannomon. I looked at him strangely, were we going to stop them or divert them? I began to get excited. Only for me to look down as I heard two clinks on my hind legs. I saw two metal balls of chrome digizoid attached to my legs that had been attached by Sistermon Noir and Blanc._

" _Your training today is Speed, and I expect you back at the World Tree in two weeks." He picked up the Sistermon and sped away._

" _Master, come back!" I turned around and heard the roars of the Tyrannomon, he couldn't be serious... Right?_

"Kid, you okay?" The adult was staring at me straight in the eyes. I flinched.

"Yeah I'm fine. Just remembering something."Sophia had finished and was glaring at me. Still I had time to kill, and I still had to play "recreational activities." Whatever those were.

Locker Room

I looked down at my backpack as I was going over the last period, recreational activities apparently meant having "fun" by playing various "sports." They were pretty boring, but then again, who was I judge what was fun? Still the day was almost over and I hadn't blown cover, now I just had to sit through one more class, and I was home free.

I turned around as someone put there hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw the bald kid who had insulted me. "Can I help you?" I asked, careful to keep my tone neutral.

"You hear that, Raghead here wants to know if he can "help" us." the one in front of me sneered to his two friends behind him. _'Oh, I jinxed it, didn't I? ...Wait I can't fight humans, Master said I couldn't put them through the wall, or the floor, or the ceiling._

"Well can I?" I looked for an exit, unfortunately to two further back were moving to pen me in.

"Sure you can, you see we can't have the lesser races getting too uppity, it's bad enough that black bitch walks around like she owns the place, but you a raghead _and_ a gay. We can't have that, now can we? So me and my boys here are going to teach you a 'lesson.'"

'' _The instant I'm out of here I am finding out what that word means,'_ I decided.

"Well that's a bit of a problem," I started, "because I doubt you guys can teach me anything that Master already hasn't."

At this the boy's face turned ugly, and he moved to punch me… It was so slow, the strike was a telegraph, he had his thumb curved inward… It was just all kinds of pathetic. ' _I can't let him hit me. That would lead to a broken hand, and far too many questions.'_ Luckily, I had watched Master enough to know what to do.

I grabbed the incoming arm, and pulled it closer to me before I flipped the guy over. I then darted out of the room backpack smacking against my back, if I could find an adult the whole fight would stop. Unfortunately, once I got out there was no adult in sight, and only the other students, my musings were cut off, when I glanced behind, ducked under a another wild punch, and swept one of the guy's legs from under him. The other now had to step over his friend if he wanted to try me.

"What are you waiting for? Get that fucker!" I heard thug#1 say. I made to move away only to find that students had formed a ring around me. ' _Really, just really? You see a fight, and you don't try to stop it or get help? You actually try to force it to continue?'_ I shrugged my backpack off of my shoulders and flung it over the crowd's head, it would only hinder me in a fight. I turned around and saw all three of the thugs had me surrounded.

"Alright then you guys wanna fight? Let's, fight," I finished my statement by ducking under the first one's punch and kicking his leg so he overbalanced, only to punch his face while he was falling forward. His nose made an audible crack.

I turned to the other two, "Still up for this? Cause I'm willing to forget this ever happened if you are." They looked ready to stand down only for one of them to make another charge at me. ' _Yggdrasil dammit!'_ To take this one down I dodged inside his punch, and hit him in his stomach. I spun around my foot coming up in a high arc, and I hit the other one in the side of the head, his body spinning before it fell to the ground, and for a moment I thought I had seriously hurt him only for me to relax when I heard a muffled groan of pain. Seeing as they didn't get up to attack me, I turned to the crowd

"Okay this fight's over, and you guys saw nothing? I _totally_ did not beat those three guys up they just tripped, isn't that right?" I nodded my head and made my way over the body only for a shrill voice to pierce the air.

"Just what is going on here?" The circle parted revealing Mrs. Knott my homeroom teacher with Taylor beside her to see me standing over three downed students… "In my defense, they started it." I offered weakly.

Principal's office

"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but did you not explicitly say, "Trust me, ma'am, I won't be breaking any rules.""

' _Actually I had said that "I'd be on my best behavior," but I didn't think she'd appreciate the correction.'_

"I do remember saying something of the sort." I offered weakly. "But I tried to avoid the fight. I asked them to back off and I ran first after one tried to punch me in the face." I said my voice gaining some sharpness.

"That does not justify breaking one boy's nose, giving the other one a concussion, and knocking one unconscious." She retorted sharply, before looking up. "I've already called your guardian here to pick you up, and you will be serving Saturday detention with those boys.

" _Oh Yggdrasil no!"_ My face met my hands, and a muffled groan escaped from my lips although not from the disappointment she probably expected it to be from, " _By Drasil he's going to be insufferable."_

I felt his digisoul approaching from behind and braced myself for the worst.

"I am deeply disappointed with you, son," Master said in a solemn, serious voice. My head snapped up, that couldn't be Master. It was he looked at me solemnly before turning to Principal Blackwell,

"I'm sorry for my son's actions. He will be punished accordingly." Turning back to he "Let's go, you're grounded for four weeks." I looked at him strangely Atho, Rene, and Por making their way over here, it felt like him, and it looked like him, but this demeanor was all wrong.

As we stepped out of the school building I was reassured that Master was still an asshole, when he hit me on the back of the head and began to laugh.

"Really, you couldn't even last a day, Idiot Student?" he asked as a wide grin overtook his face.

"They attacked first, and when I tried to escape the other students closed in on me."

"Excuses, excuses," he sang out, enjoying my suffering. "Anyway, Brat, I'm really proud of you." My head snapped to the side and Atho, Rene, and Por resumed their approach. "After all, you just made me 500 dollars."

"...Did you bet that I would get in trouble the first day of school?" I asked offended.

"Yep! The others thought you would be all prim and proper, but as always, I was right. Now come on, I called Ulforce, he's giving you a ride home."

"But I thought you said... You were proud of me." I asked my face rapidly paling, Ulforce was a good driver. It was just... The human body was not meant to jerk to the side so quickly.

"Oh I am, but you still drew attention to yourself, so this is your punishment. By the way, we have a meeting at twelve, and it's important. So... If you have any school related stuff, knock it out beforehand."

Suddenly a sudan squealed through a drift to come to a stop in a perfect handbrake turn at the curb before us. That was Ulforce alright. My insides were already screaming.

"Anyway there's your ride. I'm off to go to the dojo, that kid, Bryan, has some potential for being a human."

End 2.2: Screw the Orders, I'm Doing What's Right

So Please review the story, and PM me if you guys have any questions


	10. Chapter 8: The Impression That I Get P1

2.3: The Impression That I Get Part 1

Royal Knight, Apartment Complex 12:00 A.M

Jesmon P.O.V

I looked around, we had all gathered in Duftmon's room. Multiple computer screens lined the walls, all showing different data feeds. I turned my head to Magnamon, and quirked an eyebrow up so as to ask why we were here. He looked back at me and shrugged. Okay, so I wasn't the only one. Still, Duftmon wouldn't have called us here together if he hadn't found something important, and I needed something more worthwhile today, after I had mucked up my first day of school.

"My brothers, I realize that we've all been rather stressed lately," at this he sent me a _look_ , and I felt my face warm up. "However, I've come across some information you all might find interesting." At this he grabbed thirteen manilla folders, and he gave them to us. I flipped my copy open, and I felt my eyes widen as I took in the information.

"Holy shit, that is a lot of money! I mean we could own five small countries, and have them flourish too, if we had the money these Cauldron guys have!" Ulforce burst out, ignoring the other information on the page that I felt was far more important. Like the fact they sold what I assumed to be pieces of the Abomination.

Gallantmon looked up from his copy, a frown of confusion on his face. "While they do have impressive resources, Duftmon, I can't see the importance of destroying them. Not to mention that we can't do it without the rest of the world coming down on us."

"Au Contraire, Gallantmon, I suggest the exact opposite, that we _ally_ with them." At this the room exploded with Crusadermon shooting out of his seat, expression furious.

"You expect us to _ally_ with these… _Heathens_ that pass the infection for money? Humans are bad enough, these are the worst of them! More so, out of all of us I would expect you to advocate for their destruction for this heresy," Crusadermon finished with a growl

"Oh, and why would you think this, Crusadermon?" Duftmon asked, fixing Crusadermon with a cold stare.

"Probably has something to do with being on The "Let's Kill _All_ of the Humans" Faction during the Dream Eater incident," Alphamon muttered flipping through the folder again, sipping his cup of coffee occasionally. ' _How can he always be so calm?'_

"Differing opinions aside, even if we were to approach this group, what could we offer? Like Ulforce said, the money they have is enormous, and considering the investments they've made in the past..." Omnimon trailed off. I assumed he was referring to the fact that a lot of money Cauldron had invested had gone into silencing nay-sayers of parahumans and the PRT alike, sometimes permanently.

"Humans have always craved power," Duftmon said, coldly. "Let's face it, even among these parahumans we would be like gods."

He ignored Master's mutter of "Then why are we hiding, Duftmon? If we're so superior?"

He was about to continue when a buzzing sound was heard. As one our heads turned towards Magnamon.

"I have to go," he said. "I'm on call." Seeing our confused looks, he continued, "They need my help in the hospital, and since I need this job if I want to make observations on the parahumans, I really need to get going. Ulforce, can you drive me there?"

"Sure thing bro, just let me get my keys, and we'll be there in no time and then you'll be able to knock em' dead!" he exclaimed, clenching a fist. Then he looked at everyone staring at him. "On second thought don't, you're a doctor you can't kill them." He spun around and pointed at Gallantmon, "Tell me what happened once I get back."

Magnamon P.O.V

I practically leapt, out of the car as soon as we came to a stop. I flashed my I.D to the security guard, around us ambulances lights flashed around the building with a couple police cars. I entered the building, and I glanced back at Ulforce who had simply bypassed the security guard, by saying he was with me, and considering our shared hair, the officer didn't check for my approval.

I practically flinched as I felt multiple carriers of the Abomination in the building. Still that could wait, I needed to put on my work clothes. I got into my locker and threw a spare pair to Ulforce, "Put these on." I said. "Do exactly as I say."

"Maggie!" A voice caused me to turn my head to see one of my co-workers. "Get your ass to the ICU! They need all the help they can get." I nodded, already striding in that direction.

"Doctor Cox, what' all this about?" only for him to scoff, and motion for Ulforce to come with us, the situation must have been really bad if he was accepting help from a volunteer.

"What always happens. The gangs in this town start to fight, the Wards join in, and _we_ end up cleaning the the mess. Also, Blueman # 2, you will do exactly as I say unless you want your ass thrown out of this building, and not out the front door."

"Yes, sir," he muttered.

"Doctor Cox, is Panacea here already? Her help would be vital considering the amount of ambulances we saw parked outside."

"Nope, it's one of those days, although she should be here in a couple of minutes. Still, a couple of minutes is something not most of these guys have."

He was right. As soon as I entered the ICU it was filled to the brim with people shouting, doctors were running around with carts of supplies. I could see a person on a stretcher screaming clutching what remained of his side, as he was rolled by us.

I went to the first patient that caught my attention. It was a black haired and skinned man, and he had a bullet wound in the abdomen. He was lashing out, I made to give him Anesthesia, after ordering Ulforce to restrain him. Then Doctor Cox was shouting at me.

"Don't bother Newbie, that's a Merchant. He has so much dope in him right now giving him that will either kill him or have no effect at all.

"Great so we'll do this the hard way," I muttered absently grabbing a clamp and getting to work.

I made to move on to my next patient after I had finished resuscitating the asian man, only to pause when I felt two of the Abomination carriers approaching. I turned around, and gave a sigh of relief as I noted that the first was Panacea... Although next to her had to be her polar opposite where Amy was short and could be easily missed, the person next to her demanded attention... Wait, that wasn't right, I had a work to do.

"The blonde one has something like Lilithmon's shtick," Ulforce muttered as he absently grabbed my next patient. He easily overpowered him as I prepared to remove the bullet, and hopefully save this human's life. "Not nearly as strong though," he confided to me.

In return I shot him a glare that said, "No shit, now focus," as I made to remove the bullet. I nearly growled when I felt one of the carriers approach, before depositing the bullet in a bowl.

I was putting stitches in his wound when a voice spoke up. "I haven't seen you here before."

"Victus, entertain her, and I'm new," I said, already moving onto the next bed, I felt Panacea flit from one bed the next. Any relief I felt at Panacea's appearance was drowned as I looked to the side and saw more beds entering just as fast as they were clearing out. This was going to be a _long_ night.

I leaned against the entrance to the rooftop, and breathed heavily. I could make out the sun rising, still I looked down at my hands, they were clean, and not blood soaked, I had helped save lives, and that was something at least. I ignored the fact that two thirds of those people I saved had handcuffs put on them. My relaxation was cut off when I sensed a cape approach. I stood up and moved towards the railing to get a better view at the rising sun. I heard the door open behind me.

I felt the carrier pause once he or she caught sight of me. "You don't have to leave," I said, careful not to take my eyes off of the skyline...

"I wasn't going to," the carrier replied, her voice unsure before firming up as she spoke. It was Panacea, or Amy.

"Then come on and enjoy the view. You might as well get _something_ nice before heading home to crash."

At this she tip-toed up beside me, and looked at the rising sun. She looked so tired, expression completely apathetic.

"You know, forgive me for being too forward, but you seem remarkably sad for someone who just ensured multiple people will live again."

She just smiled without any happiness. "Half of those were gangbangers who will probably be out within the month."

"And the other half are just regular people who will go back to living their lives, peacefully, I take the bad and the good."

"It never stops though," she muttered. turned to me "Today it was the Merchants; tomorrow, the ABB; then the E88. And heaven forbid we take one of them out, then it will just be someone new! Or…"

"Then why continue?" I countered, "You've sworn no oath, you're just a child practically. Nobody can force you to do this."

"I'm a Hero," she said as she looked me in the eye. "Doing this… It's what Heroes do."

"Heroes don't do things out of obligation though, they do it because they desire it. Had I wanted to I could have stayed in the slums of Athens, and probably been one of those criminals. Instead I decided I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to help people, and despite the odds, despite the fact that there were people better than me I clawed my way here, and I'm happy for it." I countered.

"Heroes do things because they want to, huh?" she asked, almost laughing at her own personal joke. "But aren't you a doctor?"

"I am, and I have the pleasure of knowing that somewhere a father and a mother will be coming home to their kids, if I didn't gain any satisfaction from this. You are not however a doctor, you're a teenage girl and trust me when I say it's a big world out there with plenty things that you can do to be a hero or to make a positive difference, without healing people." I finished

She turned away and I barely heard her whisper to the breeze, "Try telling that to everyone else."

More loudly she said to cover up what she thought I didn't hear, "But this is where I can do the _most_ good."

"And if it makes you miserable to the point that you're questioning why you should do it, to the point you are talking to a person you've known less than half an hour, then you need to consider if it's really worth it. And whatever you decide, follow through on it. Now if you'll excuse me, I just realized I just left my brother alone for I don't know how long, and I should probably go find him before someone tries to kill him." She just nodded, face back to impenetrable apathy staring into the rising sun.

End 2.3: The Impression that I get Part 1


	11. Chapter 9: The Impression That I Get P2

2.4 The Impression That I Get Part 2

Jesmon P.O.V

I looked at Taylor, in confusion. "What exactly are you sorry about? You were the only reasonable one there...Speaking of which, is it normal for other students to encourage a fight?"

"In Winslow?" she asked with a derisive snort. "Yes, especially if one of the gangs are involved. No one wants to get singled out and get their house firebombed. It's just if I hadn't, then you wouldn't have gotten in trouble."

"You can't know that," I denied. "One of them might have thought he was smart and claimed that I snuck up on each of them separately and did it before running off. At least with all of them together you could tell that I didn't have numbers or surprise on my side."

"How _did_ you deal with three guys at once? I left after I saw you run out and duck a punch."

"Well I took out the other guy's legs first, and then punched him in the face while he was falling down, to take down the second guy one good punch in his solar plexus took him out of the fight, and the third one... A well placed kick to the head takes out most people my Master fights…" I trailed off as I noticed she was staring at me. "What? Is something wrong?"

"No," she said "It's just that most people aren't that calm when they describe beating people up."

"Well I fought a lot where I come from and my, erm, dad teaches martial arts so there's also that. Anyway, I'm sure it's all good now." I waved at my three aggressors only for them to extend their middle fingers… Huh, humans were strange. I turned around only to see Taylor was sending me another strange look. What had I done now?

"Taylor, what does giving a person the middle finger mean?" I was curious, humans had such strange quirks. And they couldn't be mad at me, although it was worrying that they hadn't healed already.

My musings were cut off when Taylor slapped a hand against her face like Omnimon was prone to do. "You're such a dork, Shawn." _'What's a dork?'_ I blinked. Taylor must have seen my lost expression because she started giggling. ...But seriously, what was it?

"You're hopeless, aren't you?"

"Yep, I agreed, "this all very new to me so I'll need a guide at this." I extended my hand. "Taylor, would you like to be friends with me?"

At this she stopped giggling and got this strange look in her eyes. "Do you really mean that?" She asked, surprisingly distant.

"Yeah, I want to be your friend, why wouldn't I?"

"You know the fight that happened yesterday?" she asked darkly. "I'd bet my right eye that Emma, Madison, and Spohia set that up. And that isn't the worst thing that they've done to me. And if you were to become friends with me…"

"They'd try as hard to ruin me, right? I guess that's why those guys called me gay yesterday." _'Not that I've had a chance to look up what it meant.'_ "Though, I don't know why it's supposed to be a problem."

"They're Empire 88, Neo-Nazis. They think they should be superior to everyone else and if you don't conform to their worldview, they try to enforce it through terror." Well that explained some things, though now I had to look up what a "Nazi" was, and what made the new versions distinct.

"So they're bad news?"

Taylor leaned in closer and lowered her voice so that it would be harder for people to hear. "The E88, the ABB, Azn Bad Boys, and the Merchants are the three biggest gangs in all of Brockton Bay. The ABB tries to take everyone who they think is Asian, or useful. Their big players are Lung and Oni Lee."

"Lung, as in "Fought Leviathan at Kyushu one on one" Lung?" I hissed.

"Probably," she replied with a shrug. "Capes try to keep their names distinct from each other and while posing as a big time player might have benefits in the short term if they get found out, there'd be hell to pay." She then pointed to a vietnamese kid wearing red and green. "Those are the ABB's gang colors. You see someone wearing them, they're either part of the gang or asking to get beaten up."

Well that was some interesting information I could bring back to everyone. We hadn't really had too much time to check out the more local scene, so maybe this could make up for yesterday.

"The E88 is lead by a Cape named Kaiser. Or at least it is now, according to dad E88 has been around at least since he was a kid and has changed leadership at least once. He has some other capes as well, Hookwolf being his main enforcer. And they don't just recruit local thugs either. The E88 has the most Parahuman muscle out of any of the gangs here. And there are rumors they have connections in other countries too."

"And the last one?"

"The Merchants? They aren't as nasty in a fight, heck most of their members here are too high to even realize when they other guy punched 'em. The Merchants deal in drugs and sex. They're the sellers and the users. They've got a little bit of power and they use it to ruin a lot of people's lives. They run between the cracks of the E88, the ABB, and the Protectorate."

"And they aren't the only ones who will come after you if you keep on hanging out with me. So do you really want to be friends with me?" She said this with a self deprecating look, and with a smile that already seemed to know my answer.

I didn't have to think about this for a second. "I don't _want_ to be your friend…" I let that trail off. "I'm _going to be_ your best friend, damn it!" My fist impacted the table, and if it wouldn't cause me to get in trouble with the humans Atho, Por, and Rene would have manifested with me… If, you know, they were here too. "As of now you are my friend Taylor Hebert. I hope we have good times ahead of us." I smiled as she burst out laughing.

"I guess we are," she managed to yeek out between bursts of laughter.

October, 2010

Alphamon P.O.V

I looked up from the cash register, there was only one customer who would be here at this time in the morning. "Good morning, Contessa." I made sure to smile at the Italian woman. She was wearing a suit as always, "Are you ever gonna tell me what your job is that you have to wear a suit for it everyday?" ' _You won't. But it never hurt to be kind.'_

At this she just waved her hand, "Please, and I'll have the usual Mr. Barista." I nodded my head at this, and I accepted her money, although I noticed she had a perfume, and that it smelled of nutmeg. _'How did she know I liked that perfume?_ ' Still I made to make her expresso.

"By the way, Mr. Barista, I've come to a decision." I came to full attention, though kept my body loose. _'Is Cauldron finally making their move?_ "You see the mayor is holding this annual ball, and I need a plus one." ' _Okay, I'm not hearing a gun click, so that's always a good sign.'_ "And I've decided that I want you to be my date."

" _That's not what I had been expecting at all!'_ I ran through Kyoko's memories of her dates, and what had happened, dancing, bad jokes, paying for the bill, getting drunk… And I had not needed to see two humans copulating. I turned around, lazy smile plastered on my face. "That's a pretty funny joke, why ask me?" It didn't make sense for a woman from a shadowy organization to invite a lowly starbucks worker to a high class event like the mayor's charity ball.

"Well you see I can't exactly invite my co-workers. One's happily married to another man, the other has a stick up her ass that makes telephone poles look like toothpicks, and the last just isn't that much of a social butterfly. Plus my boss is my mother figure, and that would be awkward. Finally nobody else makes the best expresso I've ever had," she paused and leaned forward as she took the cup out of my hand and plucked a cookie from the top and began to munch on it. "Or gives me a dinosaur head in my espresso like you do."

I moved my hand across my chin playfully, "Well with that endorsement, how can I say no?" _Duftmon is going to bitch at me for this, I can already tell._ "Where do I pick you up?"

"In front of the Starbucks would be fine, at 7:00 PM." She said, flashing me a smile, grabbing one of the starbucks business cards and jotting down some numbers on the back.

"It's a date then," I smiled right back at her. ' _Game on, Cauldron_.' I accepted her number, and watched as she walked out the door. The instant she was out the door I opened my phone, and dialed in Ulforce's number.

"Brother, I'm gonna need you to do me a favor." I could hear somebody shouting in the background.

"Sure, anything for my vagrant brother." He said, ignoring the cries of the latest victim of his driving.

"Could you get Ryouma to take your personal car apart, and it check over? I'm going to need to borrow it later tonight. It's about the business mom left before she went on vacation. "

At this I heard a brief period of silence, before it was cut off by the screech of the tires. "Get out of the car, and hey my driving is kickass." There was a brief pause, and more yelling before I heard Ulforce's voice again. "Sorry about that, but yeah what finally got you interested, dear brother of mine, in finally making your move."

"Oh, I just got invited on a date." I said keeping my lazy smile on, even though he couldn't see it. He knew me well enough that it transmitted.

"Nothing fun ever happens to me! Shawn got in a fight his first day of school, Camryn almost assaulted a dude for calling him a she, Kaji sells killer japanese desserts to Kenta, Duftmon puts on shades everyday and folds his hand while plotting to take over the world, and now you're going on a date! What's the world coming to?" He moaned.

"Oh I'm sure you'll manage, and didn't you almost got in a fight with that "Anders" guy?"

"It's not the same! Although I'm glad you're finally getting to do something worthwhile after being a vagrant hobo for such a long time, while the rest of us are stuck with our boring jobs." He paused and I could practically see him put a finger to his mouth. "Well other than Magnus, but that's because he's turned into a mother hen."

"Oh I'm sure you'll get your time to shine in soon," I said, remembering our plan.

"Oh don't mention it, you'll just make it longer for me. But you'll be okay, right, bro? This won't be like the Meikumon incident?" I heard his tone turn serious.

"Trust me, dear brother of mine I doubt a date could be as bad as that whole incident. Now I have to go call Duftmon, and see if I can borrow one of his suits.

"Oh can you please wait until I'm home until you break the news on him? I can't wait to see his expression!"

"I wouldn't _dare_ deprive you of that, brother," I assured him with a grin that he assuredly was matching.  
_

I gave myself a once-over to make sure the tie was straight and my suit was in order, before I patted my hair down in some attempt to make it presentable. Key word, "attempt."

"Is there any _particular_ reason you've been hogging the mirror for a better part of an hour?" Gankoomon grumbled. In the background of the mirror's reflection, I could see Jesmon working on his homework, Social Studies he rarely had anything else that kept him this late; Gallantmon was looking over his shoulder and throwing out facts at seeming random to which Jesmon would nod; Duftmon filling out papers; Crusadermon reading a book; Dynasmon and Ulforce each trying to drink the other under the table while Magnamon "refereed," the unrepentant smirk on his face stating just who would be cleaning up the mess at the end of it, every once in a while glancing back to his copy of _Grey's Anatomy_.

"It's quite simple, Gankoomon," I replied, my bored tone hiding my amusement. "I am going on a date."

Gallantmon started choking. Crusadermon dropped her book; and Duftmon's pen started writing onto the table as his head snapped up. Well, that seemed to have gotten everyone's attention.

After he finished getting the water out of his lungs, Gallantmon asked with a smirk, "Oh, and who's this human you're going on a date with?"

"Hmm, her name's Contessa," I said my eyes meeting Duftmon and Gallantmon each in turn. Gallantmon looked dazed, and was ignoring the glare Jesmon shot him, and I could almost see the pieces fitting together in Duftmon's head. I gave up on my hair, and walked out of the room as Gallantmon went over to me.

""She said her name was Contessa," you said, as in _the_ _Contessa_?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"As in the Contessa whose part of that organization we can't talk about due to reasons. Yes," I said, "and don't worry I know that you've been fighting with Daddy over this and it been causing you two marital issues, but I'll be fine." I smiled and patted the Viral Knight on the shoulder.

"Tread lightly Alphamon, they have pull, and at this stage we cannot afford to fuck up," Duftmon murmured.

"I know. And that's why I won't fuck this up," I assured him.

"You only have one chance, Alphamon. Unless you've found something the rest of us haven't." Duftmon scolded looking at me seriously.

"I have this under control, and come now, Duftmon, it's me. When have I ever failed you? Now if you'll excuse me, gentleman, I have a lady to pick up."

"You clean up well, Mr. Barista," Contessa said to me as we pulled into where the party was being held.

"Please, Contessa, call me Adam?" I asked with false embarrassment. I stepped out of the car, and handed my keys to the valet, before I made my way to her side of the car. I opened the door for her, and offered my arm.

"Aren't you the _knightly_ figure?" she asked, playing her own role in this dance.

"I aim to please, after all it's not often knights get _damsels_ such as yourselves, at least not without dragons being involved, and I feel she is _far too_ busy to look out for my love life. Now, come, the ball awaits, and I bet you would look absolutely _killer_ on the dance floor with that dress of yours." From Kyoko's memories it was daring, but not low cut enough to look slutty.

"After you, my knight in shining armor." continuing this dance of ours.

"I've always thought I looked better in black myself," I replied. And on that note we walked towards the ball.

End 2.4 The Impression That I Get Part 2

Author's Omake: What Jesmon went through

I scowled at my ruined homework... That had taken thirty minutes to write up, and the technology at Winslow was so primitive I couldn't turn it in online! "Gallantmon," I asked, annoyance creeping into my tone, "You are planning on helping me fix this, _right_?" Like heck I was getting in trouble for something like that. Suddenly, the Viral Knight's grin became much more strained. Good, maybe next time he'd remember where he was before doing a spit-take. With Justice served I moved on to the other thing that had been bothering me. "What's a date?"

"Something that Taylor wishes you would ask her on," he muttered with a dazed look before shaking his head and moving towards Alphamon. It took me a moment to process what he had just said. And he disengaged at the same time! Drat! Now I was down thirty minutes with next to nothing for it!

"She said her name was Contessa..." Gallantmon had moved closer to Alphamon and was now talking with him in a hushed voice, but I didn't pay attention to that. I might as well get something out of this fiasco. Since Taylor wanted me to ask her on a date, I probably should. I typed in the number Taylor gave me on my phone.

 _Bring Bring Bring_

"This is Daniel Hebert speaking, who is it?" Oh, this must have been Taylor's father. She mentioned he was depressed a lot lately. I wonder why?

"Hello, Mr. Hebert, this is Shawn Kim speaking. I'm a classmate of Taylor's, and I just wanted to ask her something."

"Oh, and what is this about?" He said, his tone had changed it had gotten slightly colder. Like how Master got when a Digimon attacked the Sistermon. What had I done?

"I wanted to ask her—" I was interrupted by Ulforce laughing and giving me a v-sign with his arms.

I shot him a glare only to notice Magnamon had held up a sheet of paper in front of his face that read, _"Tell him it's about homework."_

"But it isn't about homework, I want to ask Taylor on a date," I whispered back. I held the phone away from my ear and had a hand over the speaker, as I said this. It was rude to talk to two people at once. At this, Ulforce fell on the floor laughing so hard, I bet Omnimon could hear it.

It was rather impressive how quickly Magnamon wrote his response. "[s] _Just_ [/s]... It's a human thing, and just trust me on this. You _don't_ want to tell him you are asking Taylor out on a date." At this point he seemed to believe his help was no longer necessary and went back to his book as Ulforce scrambled to contain himself and get back onto the seat to finish his match.

Oh, well... If _that_ was the case... Magnamon wouldn't likely tell me that as a prank. I held the phone back to my ear. "Uh, sorry about that. One of the neighbors was rather loud there. It's just my history homework got ruined, and I was wondering if Taylor could help me on the final problems."

"Is that so?" he muttered before he stopped, and then I heard him, much more distantly—see I knew phone etiquette—call for Taylor. "It's a classmate of yours. He said his name was Shawn." After this, I could hear some mutters before a period of silence.

"Hey, Shawn," Taylor said. "Dad said you needed some help with homework?" She sounded tired, what had happened earlier today?

"Uhh... yeah, Kaji sprayed some soda over my Social Studies homework, and I was wondering if you could help me with the last three problems." Well, if I had the chance... Might as well actually get my homework done.

"Sure, just give me a second." I could hear her feet thumping on stairs as she went up then down them... Or did she go down then up? I couldn't tell, I'd never been to her house before.

"What were the problems again, Shawn?"

"Uhh... Actually, Taylor that's not all I'm calling about, but someone said not to mention it to your dad. I was wondering, if you would like to go on a date?"

" _What!?_ " She shouted, and I cringed and held the phone away due to the volume.

"Kaji said you wanted me to ask you on one." I answered quickly. trying to reassure her. I also sent a quick glance towards Gallantmon. _'Did he lie to me?'_

"Shawn... Do you know what a date _is_?" Taylor asked with a weary tone.

"No... Should I?" I answered, only for Taylor to sigh.

"This is just like the bathroom incident," She muttered, and I felt my face go warm. I was never going to live that down, was I?

"Hey! How was I supposed to know that a pink sign on a bathroom means that only girls can enter it it's not like we have anything like that in the _Di…_ Er, Dubai."

"Just... I'll explain it to you tomorrow, now, what were those questions you needed to copy down?" Oh, that's right, I had almost forgotten about that, as I copied down the questions again, I noticed Alphamon leaving with Gallantmon close behind.


	12. Chapter 10 Alphamon Doesn't Care

2.5: Alphamon doesn't care

My lazy smile was ever present as Contessa and I walked into the ballroom. There were multiple carriers of the Abomination, and unlike my _date's_ presence, which was muted and distinctly different in how it felt, these carriers all had a distinctively alive feel. Still, for a first date it was very high class.

"Shall we?" I gestured to the dancefloor. From what I remembered from Kyoko's experience at formal parties it was customary for couples to be dancing, and there were five couples already on the floor.

"Not yet. I have to meet with an associate. He's becoming a bit of a problem to the company I work with," She said with a smile on her face.

"I'm hurt you got my hopes up, and now you're dumping me to deal with work. Why I thought we had something special." I jokingly gasped while clutching what would have been my heart.

"We do, and I promise we'll enjoy a nice slow dance... Maybe even after the party we'll get to know each other." She said before walking off a sway in her hips.

"Oh I'm sure we will," I muttered. Still, might as well make it easier for her. I made my way over to the bartender. "One glass of red wine, and one Gin and Tonic, please." I tipped the bartender as he made my drinks. I glanced around the room, the child Magnus often saw at work was arguing with her sister, who had her arm hooked around a boy in costume, Gallant if I recalled correctly. A man in a suit of armor with a beard being a distinguishing feature was talking with a few reporters, and a woman with an American Flag was by the entrance. I made note of the exits. _'Two, and it's not noticeable, but the Capes are stationed so they can easily block them off. Have I walked into a trap? Then again, there are few traps that can hold me.'_ Still, I found Contessa talking to a man in a rather expensive suit. He was pale might have been attractive if he wasn't sweating his body away. ' _Somebody screwed up_ _ **big time**_ _.'_

"Your drinks, sir," My sweep of the room finished, I turned to the bartender.

"My thanks," I returned, handing him a hundred dollar bill. "If I come back with a woman please have two gin and tonics ready." I accepted my drinks before I downed the gin and tonic, my metabolism making quick work of the alcohol, although she shouldn't know that. It took a lot of alcohol to get us drunk, and unlike Gankoomon, who took it as a challenge to get in situations that made his student want to murder him, I could control myself, even if I did get drunk.

I made my way over to another table, and I watched her walk back to me. "I thought you might enjoy a glass of red wine," I mentioned as she came closer, making sure my own larger glass was in plain view, noting as her eyes taking flickered over the lime.

"Thank you," she said, accepting the glass, and sipping it.

"Now, I'm _really_ curious as to what you do. Your company must be very powerful if you can cause a man to look like he's just been given a death sentence." ' _Well this is the first time I've seen a_ human _do it, Jesmon looks similar when Gankoomon ropes him into something._

"Hardly, he just needed a reminder not try to keep his personal assets hidden from the company, especially volatile ones that could damage the company's image," she said, dismissing the entire encounter and putting her glass on the table. "Now, I believe you promised me a dance."

"I did, now shall we." I mockingly bowed and then took her hand, and we joined a dance floor.

I situated my right hand on her back, and she put her hand on my left shoulder. From my review of Kyoko's memories, this was called a waltz.

"If you don't mind me asking? Where'd a starbucks worker like you learn how to dance?" She muttered, feet following my lead perfectly.

I pulled her closer. "Oh I had a female friend teach me. However, I'm really interested in why you asked me on a date, and don't dodge the question by saying my expresso is the best thing to grace this Earth, I doubt that's the only reason."

"Well, around three months ago, something really strange happened to me. I was just walking along when I fell unconscious, it turned out I had an aneurysm, and I would have died had my boss not been around. After I woke up I realized life is so fickle, and I realized I needed to experience it."

"So you decide to take the Starbucks worker you've only known in passing for three weeks to a high class event like this? "Careful, I may not be able to control myself until after the ball." _Come now, why is this necessary at this point? I'd actually appreciate a gun being pulled on me._

"Well to add to that, you're British which I've always found quite attractive, you're polite to me, and not only do you make the best espresso I've ever had, you're quite the dancer. Why there aren't that many guys out there who I know. And now that I've stroked your ego, now why did you accept?"

' _So I could get off my ass, and finally figure out what your organization has to offer my brothers.'_ "A high class woman comes into your life and asks you to sweep her off her feet? If I _didn't_ accept my friends would ridicule me 'til our grandchildren were all gone. ...Or I could always just be using your company as an excuse to get into this party." I smirked at her, and applied pressure on the small of her back.

"Why aren't you the charmer? Now come on and tell me the real reason. I noticed you watching me walk away."

"Well honestly, you're one of my more attractive customers, you always tip well, you have a beautiful smile, and I've always had a thing for sharply dressed woman," at this I made sure to stumble a bit.

"Oh, somebody's had a bit too much to drink," She noted in measured giggles, and guided me off the dancefloor. "Here, I just need to check up on a few things, and then we'll have a really good time." I watched as she walked off with a goofy smile on my face. ' _Finally, human mating rituals are strange.'_

I opened my phone, and sent out a group text, " _About to make contact with Group C or be kidnapped, if I make contact expect me back tonight, if I'm "Kidnapped" give me a day or two."_

I snapped my phone shut, as she came back up to me. "Who were you texting?"

"I just needed to let my roommate know I wasn't going to be home tonight, and probably not for the rest of the morning." I sent her a roguish grin.

"I'll hold you to that, now come on let's go to my place." She took note of how I stumbled a bit more. "I'll be driving."

"Oh, today really _is_ my lucky day." I made sure my grin was full blown.

Contessa's Room

Alphamon P.O.V

I looked around the room. We had entered a high rise, the bed was big, and the tv was massive. I made to take off my coat looking at her suggestively. _'For the love of Yggdrasil please stop the ruse, I_ really _don't want to do this._

"Not yet," she said, "turn around. I need to get ready." As I did so, I heard some ruffling sounds. _'No, No, No, please let that be a gun.'_

"Door him." I turned around ignoring the space opening up in front of me only to get caught by a blast by a weapon. It lifted my body up and sent me through the tear.

' _Thank you, Drasil,'_ Kidnapping it was then. The travel was instantaneous, one moment I was in the room of a highrise, the next I was in a metal cell, and what was that! I could feel the Abomination around me. It was much fuller than Contessa's presence, different than feeling of the one who had attacked Yggdrasil, not to mention it was dormant, and it was all around me. I shifted into my digital form when I heard something coming towards me. my hand lashed out grabbing its neck in a vice, and lifted it to the side. It was some type of monster, still, I had more important things to do than analyze. I blasted it, blowing a hole through it's body before I threw its corpse to the side.

I heard alarms start blaring before a wall of energy slammed down on the opening of the cell, with a sheet of metal overlapping it. ' _Oh, that is_ _ **adorable.**_ _'_ I smashed through the energy and sent the door flying, sparks running across my armor. I stepped out and looked around, the cells across from me had their own walls of energy. So it looks like I hadn't gotten special treatment. And I had thought Contessa cared for me. Still... ' _Now, if I was shadow organization with a secret base and prison where would I keep all my data?'_ I looked around ignoring the beasts snarling from their pens. There was a walkway above me, and connected to it, was an overhanging outlook.

' _Let's start there.'_ I jumped onto the railing, and made my way to the door at the end, "Voice identification needed. Warning a subject has escaped. Master/Stranger Protocols engaged."

"From "Mr. Barista" to "Subject," wow I got dumped _hard_ ," I noted dryly as I shoved my fist through the door, and tore it open. "I _do_ hope she returns Ulforce's car. He needs it to get to work tomorrow." Gem of insight delivered, I looked across the room, in it were monitors and a computer screen. ' _This is far too easy, what's the catch?_ ' I made my way over to the monitor, and put my hand on it only for the room to explode. "Oh Yggdrasil dammit." I looked across the room where a man in green robes was standing. "That was really rude, _Eidolon..._ Or should I call you _David_ instead? Now where's your friend _Rebecca_? Aren't you two _a pair_ when you have get-togethers like this?"

He was silent, whether from shock or fury his hidden face made it difficult to tell. "Wow I'm getting the silent treatment from _you_? No questions as to why I'm here? No "how did you get out?" Your organization as whole needs to learn some manners."

"Maybe we do." I spun around only for a fist to impact my armor, sending me careening to where Eidolon was. _When did she get behi..._ Crap, _they have a teleporter._

I shoved my feet to the ground, and I skidded for a couple of meters, only for blasts of energy to impact my armor harmlessly.

"Okay, I may have deserved that… It's just I'm so agitated. I put on my best suit after this hot italian lady asked me on a date, and just when I'm about to score she shoots me and dumps my ass in a cell. So the way I see it, we have two options: you can either direct me to the nearest computer, _or_ you can get in my way, and I'll get you _out_ of my way."

I heard metal explode, as someone shot toward me. "Easy way it is then," I drawled. My form shifted into it's twelve foot version, and I spun around with my fist to send her flying through the complex.

I quickly shot towards Eidolon who had started shooting multicolored bolts at me. _**"Seiken Gradalpha"**_ I formed _Gradalpha_ to smash him to the ground. ' _I'd rather not play with them. ...Now,_ _ **there's**_ _an idea.'_ I threw _Gradalpha_ only to halt in mid flight and under my control slash through the cells containing the other subjects. "Have fun, you two!" I called over my back as I left the room through the ceiling. I ascended quickly and shot through the roof.

I was in an even larger complex… What was that? It was mixture of flesh, and pulsating… I was standing in the presence of the corpse of the Abomination... or one of it's kind at least. It felt too different to be the one that had attacked my lord, and dead too long. Still, whatever had happened, it didn't matter if the humans had killed it or it had died from some other cause, I couldn't play around anymore. I shot through rooms, passing through other cell blocks only to stop as I came to a room filled with computers, and one man. He spun around in his chair, and started shooting at me. I moved forward, and backhanded him across the room. I put my hand on the computer, and I entered the dataspace… ' _This raises even more questions, and Contessa, despite her ability, only trapped me in a cell. Still I know where I am, and I know how to get out.'_

Turning to the side I looked to man. "Sorry Number Man, just you were in my way, and I think you work with a bunch of dicks… Good talk." I moved to exit the facility only for a portal to open up, and in the next moment I was in a forest.

"Really?" I looked around nothing had attacked me yet, "Is this your idea of a joke?" The sound of crickets answered me… Well, this reminded me of what I normally did anyway, shame you couldn't find coffee in the forest. "Deja vu is a thing it seems, and I now have no idea where I am… Duftmon's going to be pissed."

End 2.5 Alphamon doesn't care


	13. Interlude 2a: Taylor

Authors Note: So these two interludes are short due to it being Thanksgiving week, anyway I'm not good at writing Taylor or Amy. I think that's partly due to being introduced to worm through spacebattles, and some other fics before I read the actual story. Basically any comments on where they seem OOC is appreciated and as always read and like AbZhz101's stuff…Seriously go do it.

Interlude 2a: Taylor

I looked up at the apartment complex, and then looked down at the piece of paper again. Nope, no mistake. Which was not a good thing. There were scorch marks around a new window signifying that the room had been on fire recently. The outer wall had been tagged with all kinds of graffiti. Part of the concrete porch was chipped and it looked like the entire thing was sinking, pulling away from the entrance. The grass was already dead too early in the year for that. The tree inside the grounds looked sick.

This _was_ Shawn's apartment building. Still it was hard to reconcile the image of Shawn, my best friend, who always wore a scarf and goggles and had a hero complex the size of the Bay, lived in a dump like this, even if my own house was nothing to write home about. Still, we had a project to do, and I was worried about Shawn. The past two days he had been absent-minded. I came out of my thoughts I fell under a shadow. I turned to the side so I could get a better view of who… What had happened to this guy? He was wearing a suit but it was caked with mud, I could see brambles in his hair, and half healed cuts along his face.

He turned to me while I was still gaping like a fish and smiled. "I _could_ tell you what happened, but you probably wouldn't believe me." Then he turned back to the intercom and hit one of the buttons. "Hey, Shawn, I think your little girlfriend is here!" he happily yelled in.

The denials came far too close to the same time for my liking. "I'm not his—"

"She's not my— _Adam_? Dang it, Adam! We were starting to think you got "Lost on the Road of Life" again!"

"Not voluntarily!" he called back, his face laughing.

"We figured that. You don't warn us when you do that, and you're gone for longer. Anyway, hey, Taylor! I'll buzz the two of you in." After that the intercom died as a buzzing noise came from the doorway, signifying that it had temporarily been unlocked.

"Well, I suppose I might be seeing you around, if you stay for dinner that is," the man, Adam, said as he pushed the door in and walked to one of the many nearly identical looking doors and walked in. I didn't have too long to think about the strange man though, as Shawn called me from a higher floor. We still had a project to do. I followed Adam into the apartment complex only to be greeted by a variety of replies.

"You couldn't stay gone for 5 more days? I lost money damn you!"

"Okaeri!"

"Where's my car, you jackass? You know it's my baby!"

"So this is your girlfriend, Brat? Not bad." At this I blushed. I looked to Shawn who had his face in his hands.

"So did you learn anything while you were gone?" This was said by a man with heterochromatic eyes.

"Would everybody _please_ get out of my apartment? I have a school project to do!" Shawn shouted.

"I live here!" an older Vietnamese man yelled right back.

"Don't remind me, you Old Fart!" This must have been the "Master" Shawn always talked about... Well, more liked stared off into the distance and shuddered remembering, but from what I could get from Shawn, he had adopted him when he was a child in Dubai.

"Sure, just kill all the fun," a man with blue hair said. "And Adam you better get me my car back or I will _bury you_ in the backyard."

"We don't even _have_ a backyard," Adam muttered, having settled down into a chair, at some point grabbed an entire pot of coffee, and was chugging whole thing.

"That's _not_ going to stop me." The man with blue hair said, before moving past me.

I watched as the rest of them left, Shawn chuckled nervously while rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry about that, Taylor, those other guys moved in at the same time as Master and me. We tend to spend dinners together since _most of us_ can't cook to save our lives." Here, he glared at his adoptive father. "Thankfully, Kaji's willing to cook for us, so long as we help out with the grocery bill."

"It's fine, Shawn, although... Is that guy's blue hair natural?"

"Yeah, his brother has the exact same shade. So," he said, clapping his hands together. "Let's get this project done for Mr. G!" He put emphasis on the G.

Shawn didn't like Mr. G. He didn't really like _any_ of the teachers, except maybe Mrs. Knott, from what I had gathered. It may have had to do with how Sophia and the rest of the trio had treated me. I looked at Shawn, who was going through his backpack to find the project rubric I guessed, and lightly blushed. I had been skeptical at first about Shawn's claim of being my friend, he was foreigner, and in my experience people always did what was easiest instead of what was right.

I hadn't had the courage to tell Shawn that my stuff had stopped disappearing, or that The Terrible Trio couldn't get to me since Shawn would always find me first. Which is how he had gone into the women's restroom. I recalled with a blush, which led to one of his only bad traits. Shawn was clueless: like going up to an electric fence and touching it to see what it did, clueless. He constantly tried to make friends with nazis and other gangbangers despite them attacking him. He also took things literally, if I had asked him to take of his shirt, which I had jokingly done once, he took it off with only a moment of hesitation.

"Earth to Taylor." Shawn was waving a hand in front of my face. Oh, I had spaced out. He was close to me I realized.

"Shawn, what did I tell you about personal space?" I muttered, not sure how to be feeling about the fact that after the fifth time this had happened, I had stopped blushing.

"Oh, you said not to enter it unless we were a couple." He smacked himself.

"Okay, so you have any ideas for the project?" I asked wanting to get the latest embarrassing moment behind us.

"Oh yeah, I had a great idea while you were coming over!" I listened to his chatter, and I smiled, yeah, Shawn wouldn't let me down, he really was a great friend, and I could trust him to never let me down, not like Emma had.

Interlude 2a Taylor End


	14. Interlude 2b: Amy

Interlude 2b Amy:

I put my face in my hands. I wanted to cry. I was exhausted. The Patients. _Never. Stopped._ Coming. In. Victoria wouldn't stop setting me up on these _Pointless. Stupid. Dates._ and I would only go home to Mom's Constant. Disappointment. And I couldn't figure out why. I heard the door open, and I quickly looked forward so Dr. Magnus wouldn't see. After that night it had become a tradition during downtime to just go up onto the roof. We rarely talked, but... Still, someone who didn't expect anything from me was always nice.

"Long day," He muttered coming up beside me, eyes already watching the sky.

"Yeah," I muttered, trying to keep the croak out of my voice. "They're all long days."

I could almost feel his attention to me. "Yes, but most don't almost put you to tears."

" _How?"_ I practically shouted at him. Fury at myself bathing the words.

"Your eyes are red rimmed, and I've known you for three months. Trust me, I know when you're upset."

"But why…" _'Why bring it up now?'_

"Because for some reason you never show it unless your sister is gone, and I believe I had a similar conversation with you on the first day on what to do. "

"Oh, well that may be easy for you to say, but you've never gone through what I have, you aren't wasting your life away for something that you don't want to do, and something that isn't appreciated by the people that matter to you!" I was openly crying now. Trying to hit something, _anything_ around me to let my anger go.

' _It's like punching a rock_ ' I noticed after connecting to his chest a couple of times. He hadn't even flinched. Before I knew it I threw what I was doing, my arms were around him. Trying to hold on to _something_ steady.

"I don't know what to do," I muttered into his chest. I could feel him lift his arms awkwardly that caused me to chuckle a bit, the unflappable Doctor Magnus couldn't deal with a teenage girl.

"Amy sometimes you have to stop, and take a breather. Everybody does it. Doctor's especially. There's a reason people in our line of work commit suicide, and trust me you're a teenage girl. _No one_ knows what they want to do at that age."

"But if I do that, Mom is just going to look at me with those eyes of hers. ...Like I'm some type of monster."

I heard him, mutter "Where's Victus when you need him?" and "Dominik is going to bitch at me." He gave a long slow exhale. "Maybe you can't get a full vacation yet, but how about spending dinner at my place? It's a group meal and one of the local brats is having a friend over anyway for a school project. It's not a full solution I know that, but it will at least let you get a break from your problems for at least three to six hours."

I looked up at him. "I can say "No" right?"

"Of course you can, it's just an offer, and a last second one I didn't plan on making when I came up here at that. I just want to know if I have to tell Kaji to prepare another spot."

I thought about it. I really did. On one hand this could just be a way to gain favor with a local Cape group or worse a trap. On the other hand, I don't think I could handle Vicky or Mom, not right now. "I'd love that."

At this he smiled at me, _'He should do it more often.'_

End 2.B


	15. Chapter 11: All My Friends are Metalhead

2.6: All my Friends are Metalheads -Less than Jake

Alphamon

I watched as "Glory Girl" swooped down to pick up Amy. It was a good dinner, everybody had stayed away from my coffee, and the humans had interacted well with our somewhat lively bunch. Even Crusadermon and Dynasmon had remained cordial—if cold. A huge change from three months ago. Anyway, Taylor's dad had come by, and picked her up, so after Glory Girl finished interrogating Magnamon, I needed to talk with my brothers. I went over to Omnimon and spoke.

"Omnimon, during my " _date_ " I learned quite a few interesting things about Cauldron, and came to another conclusion. If Operation Lifprasir is to be completed successfully, we _need_ their support."

"Really, Alphamon? Usually, you don't talk with the rest of us before you do these types of things." He gave me a look that conveyed how he felt about that.

"And aren't I so generous I gave you my opinion before I call her again?" I asked, already pressing the call button on Contessa's number. I lifted up my hand to stop Omnimon reaching for it, and then shushed him when he started ordering me to put it down.

 _Bring Bring Bring._

"Hello, 'Adam'," all emotion was gone from her voice. Well, if she wanted to be that way, fine.

"Hello, Contessa," sounding more amused than I felt. "You know I borrowed that car from a friend, right? He kinda needs it back. Thankfully, I think there should be a nice opportunity for you to return it if we can have our two groups of friends and co-workers meet. Doesn't that sound great?"

"Maybe..." she said, tone still cold. "What were you thinking?" I was distracted from the conversation when I saw Ulforce stalking towards me, growling.

"Where's my baby?! If that bitch so much as put a scratch on her, I'll kill her!" His charge was interrupted by Magnamon tripping him.

"And _this_ is vengeance for calling me a mother hen; I'm just concerned about a human who is obviously overworked." He stated before stepping on Ulforce's face, and muffling any further death threats.

' _Yes, and that is the same concern you showed for two in-trainings who were the deciding factor on whether or not you decided to kill all the humans.'_

"You still there?" I asked, though I heard her breathing. " _That_ was the guy whose car you have. I'd bring the car if I were you. Static IP addresses are a _wonderful_ thing, don't 'cha think? Anyways, back to the matter at hand since you got to pick our date's location last time, I get to pick this one, and after my little "vacation" in _Mother Russia_ , I know just the place."

"I'm listening," She said after a period of silence.

I made my way over to Jesmon's school books, and flipped to a world map.

"I'm thinking..." I allowed her to hear as I hemmed and hawed. "Not Germany, not the Himalayas, no... Nevermind, I found the perfect place for our little get together!"

"And where is that?" a little sliver of annoyance, had crept into her tone,

"Well, although the Russian forest you sent me to was very cold... It appealed to me. It was quiet—well, except for the wild life—but they aren't going tell people anything so I was thinking a nice date with +12 in Yellowstone National Park, and plus how many of your friends you bring. And since I'm so generous I'm allowing you to pick the time we meet."

The reply was instantaneous "Tomorrow, at the viewing center for Old Faithful 4 PM, Mountain Time," and then she disconnected… How rude. Well first things first.

"Ulforce she didn't say if she'll bring the car, and everybody pack your bags, we're going to Yellowstone National Park," I announced with a smile. Everybody just stared at me. "What?"

Gallantmon, after he finished banging his head against the wall, finally broke the staring, accusing silence. "Okay... Let's start of what _exactly_ did you learn about these people that convinced you we _have_ to ally with them?

"Well, you see, after my date dumped me in a cell, I made my way over to the nearest computer, but not before releasing all of the Case 53s they made. And that's when I noticed a little fact thirty feet away from me was a corpse of a member of the Abomination's species. Oh, and just a little tidbit of information, The Abomination is an alien, and he and another Abomination, which is now dead, made their way over here, seeded the planet with powers which are actually part of their bodies… It's _really_ weird I know. Anyway, the endgame for these aliens is to harvest their "passengers" as the humans called them, and then blow up the Earth and all its counterparts! So unless we want to be assaulted by both the humans and the abomination it's in our best interest to side with the humans.

They continued to stare, maybe they didn't realize my enthusiasm was sarcastic? "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go call my boss and make sure if I'm not fired." With this I left the room as it exploded into sound.

"Are you _fucking kidding me_?"

"But I have school tomorrow, I can't leave!"

"Really? You find out that we're meeting with a shadow organization that _may_ have killed a member of the Abomination's race, and _that's_ your primary concern? By Yggdrasil!"

"He has a point. We _all_ have jobs to do."

"Gankoomon, you _teach kids by beating them up, that's hardly a job! I have to heal people! Examon has to fix cars, Duftmon does whatever he does that makes money, Crusadermon designs clothes, and… The point is we're busy!_ "

"We are _going_ to this meeting, Shawn. Call in sick. The same goes for all of you or make up an excuse." Ah Omnimon, always the steadfast rock… Which is going to bitch at me after the meeting, when he thinks no one else is looking. Fun.

"Wait how are we going to get there? that bitch took my car!"

"That car wouldn't have _fit_ all thirteen of us in the first place."

"I'll rent us some cars. Everyone, if we come to blows, scatter into the world and begin your various operations. If you run into trouble with the law enforcement, you have permission to eliminate them, although I'd rather you try to avoid it."

Omnimon P.O.V

Location: Yellowood National Park, Near Old Faithful 4 pm

' _Alphamon was grounded. No, better yet he was banned from coffee for a month. You do_ _ **not**_ _go behind your leader's back like that. And you most certainly do_ _ **not**_ _throw him into situations like this_ _ **without**_ _a three day warning.'_

Gallantmon and Alphamon were flanking me as we approached five people. The rest of my brothers were spread around the room, it was a viewing center, it had been emptied, and only dim lighting lit the room, not that it mattered for us, but that was beside the point.

"Doctor Mother," I calmly greeted the woman who was in medical clothing. The Triumvirate flanked her, and I was underwhelmed. Out of costume, Eidolon was a mousy man, trying to look intimidating in a hoody and jeans. Alexandria stood to Doctor Mothers right, and was glaring at Alphamon, the prosthetic eye from where the Siberian clawed her was nearly perfect. On Eidolon's other side was Legend, or William, who greeted us with a smile. ' _Have they not told him of what Alphamon did?'_

"You're not human, we know that much," she snapped. "So drop the charade." Well then, if that was the case... Fractal code swirled around my brothers and me, other than Examon who was glaring at the five humans as the rest of us transformed.

"Good this makes things easier then. We arrived at this world five months ago. As our God was setting up our plane of existence, "Scion" or the Abomination as we call it, appeared and _without provocation_ injured our God dearly."

"Oh great, religious aliens," I heard one of them mutter, most likely Eidolon.

"And?" she cut me off again, the nerve of this woman. Alexandria clenched her fist. "How are we to believe your intentions for this world are any better than Scion's, for all we know the plane of existence your "God" was making could have been a way for it and you to invade the human world." To my side Gallantmon scoffed.

"Please, Ms. If we _wanted_ to invade your world, we could have. _With or without_ our God's consent." He continued on, "From the looks of this world, we might have actually turned it around for the better." He sent a glare towards all of them. "No, your world would have simply provided life to our race just by thinking, wishing, hoping."

"Oh, and it gets better," Eidolon muttered. " _Delusional,_ Religious Aliens _._ "

"Considering these "delusional aliens" could start nuking the country if you annoy them, and we move to the next _continent_ within four to five hours, I'd cut the snark and get down to business," Alphamon butted in, snapping at the human. The group of humans all tensed at the not-so-subtle threat, and I could almost imagine Gallantmon smirking behind his helm.

"Thank you, Alphamon. The way I see it, we both want to save the world, and better, for the same reason, the survival of your race. However, we've both come to the same roadblock. None of us have the resources or manpower to take Scion down, and from what we can tell with Endbringers attacks and your records, this world has _maybe_ twenty years before society collapses in on itself," I said.

After I finished Doctor Mother scoffed, "Am I supposed to be impressed by thirteen aliens, despite their power? What can you offer us, and why shouldn't I have you declared to be enemies of the world within the next five minutes?"

"It's quite simple, if our God recovers, you suddenly have something on the same level as Scion in your corner. Not to mention your man-power problem is solved. Trigger rates have been going down, and it's only a matter of time before the passengers stop finding hosts. We offer a solution. As of _right now_ there are only thirteen members of our race present on Earth Bet. Even if our God does not recover, more of us _will_ come. This is not a promise, this is not a threat, it is a guarantee. Should our God recover we will be provide them a safe haven to grow and thrive, _without_ causing massive problems for you. Each one would have the potential become greater than all of the people in this room. They _will_ number in the millions. So, you help us help you, and later we keep those problems out of your hair. Looks like we're giving you a Win-Win. All I ask from this alliance is to allow us to neutralize various factors, yourselves not included at the moment, and when we move against Scion to rally the world's forces against him."

"Assuming that's true, and we do kill our Mutual enemy what's to stop your 'God'—" I grit my teeth at the tone of her voice. "What's to stop your race from overthrowing the humans?"

"Assuming such a situation that's close to the scenario you've described _does happen_ , members of my race will undoubtedly side with yours. It's happened before." I motioned for Duftmon to come forward with a briefcase, he opened it handed Alphamon the device. He clicked it on, and out flashed an image of Masaru Daimon destroying our God's avatar. They all sucked in a breath. "Masaru Daimon; age, fifteen; nation of origin, Japan. No superpowers that we are aware of. Partner, Agumon, preferred final state: Shinegreymon Burst Mode."

Now assured of their complete attention, I continued. "Humans have _always_ been an integral part for our race. You're just the latest branch to encounter us." The device flashed forward showing images of the human Takato Matsuki merging to form Gallantmon, and the human who had destroyed the Dream Eater flying with Ulforce.

"All we want right now is to kill the Abomination and the growth of our world. Dealing with the problems in human world will come later, so I ask of you, whose organization has dedicated itself to the survival of humanity, will you stand with us?"

She turned to man who had a black eye, and started conversing with him. I couldn't hear them, which was odd, maybe Eidolon was using a power to block the sound.

After a minute of conversing she turned to us, "We accept your offer, we'll be in contact with you." and at this she made to give me an envelope before looking at both my arms. Gallantmon went forward Gram and Aegis shifting into hands, he gently accepted the letter.

"One final thing to note, Doctor Mother. If you and your organization decide to betray us and kill our God, our final act will be to torch the atmosphere. Such an action would be a quicker death than the fate you will suffer at the hands of the abomination, but no less painful." I let the Grey Sword slide out at this and fixed her with a stare.

She looked back at me without flinching, hmm perhaps there was some metal to this human after all. "And if you betray us I can ensure you, your God will undoubtedly die." At this she turned around, "Door Us." A tear in space opened and they entered it. It closed.

"Well… That went well, all things considered." Alphamon said shifting back to his human form causing the rest of us to follow suit.

"No, it didn't. What about my car?" at this I heard groans all around the room. Ulforce apparently had not shut up about his car, on our way here. I was about to silence him when another tear opened, I looked to it, and out flew a crumpled ball of metal… Which was Ulforce's car. As if to seal it, the license plate also flew through.

"I take back my statement." Alphamon said looking at the crumpled ball of steel and chrome he was about to continue before he was cut off.

"Nooooooooo!" Ulforce had fallen to his knees and had lifted his arms up. That did it. Alphamon was banned from coffee for three more weeks.

End 2.6 All My Friends Are Metalheads - Less Than Jake


	16. Interlude 2c: Knights

Interlude 2c Knights

Sleipmon P.O.V

I stepped off of the plane, stretching my shoulders languidly, and cracked my neck to loosen the stiffness in these human muscles. I adjusted my glasses, the human form of my partner who had led D.A.T.S suited me well. Still even with his height, the sheer mass of humans in the airport was daunting. Still, I couldn't turn to my digital form to clear the building... Not yet anyway, my own operation in China was considered to be the most daunting by my brothers due to it's revolutionary nature. The Yang-Ban's practices as an organization would not mesh well with the emergence of Digimon. Add to the fact that they were becoming increasingly closed off from the nations of the world, which hurt the world as they could use all the help they could get during the Endbringer Fights, things had to change.

I was to herald that change, I reached into my pocket and checked my phone. The text message was simply a list of ones and zeros, but to me it easily read the names of politicians who I could contact, or companies that would be interested in changing the way China did things. Still, as another person bumped against me, _'Enough reminiscing, just get to the apartment that Duftmon has booked._ _ **Then**_ _you can plan on how to overturn a world power.'_ Even with my current situation, I hoped Crusadermon was having a better time than me, smirking at the ground. Something told me the temperature of Nambia wouldn't agree with him.

Crusadermon P.O.V

' _ **Humans have to be the most worthless things to exist, and they should all die! "No Crusadermon, you can't go above a pathetic speed of 70 miles per hour, humans have to use cars to do that."**_ _Well, Gallantmon, were it not for Yggdrasils order I would currently_ _ **not**_ _be making my way out of a mud pit, that ruined the clothes I had put effort into making.'_ I clenched my fist, seething silently, though my aura of intent to harm something was a palpable should about me. ' _This Mord Nag had better be worth removing, or so help me_ —'

"Having a bit of problem there, dear brother?" Dynasmon spoke up, obviously enjoying my suffering.

"You're a riot, brother. Why don't you come closer so you can help me up, and then I can **upload your worthless code."** I'd like to think that I was keeping an exceptional control of my emotions, this was merely an exceptional time and place.

"Now, now, brother, no need to be upset, we haven't entered into glorious battle, yet. _Then_ you can release your glorious rage." Oh joy, _this_ again.

"You aren't helping me up, this is a problem. Since I can't partake in battle when I'm sinking into mud, and for the love of Yggdrasil would you please, _help me up_?"

"I've got you," he said, grasping my hand. Far more effortlessly than I would have prefered, he pulled me up from the mud. It slid off me, I glared at him when he started laughing. Damn this human form, if there was only one thing my God had done to displease me it would have to be this human form, it was short, blonde, and it couldn't be intimidating even if I was covered in the blood of my enemies after I had just ripped their kidneys out of their throats.

"Come now. You know the mission, we'll go back to camp, and then tomorrow you can kill this "Mord Nag" yourself. Until then it's human forms for us, Duftmon was very clear that we had to make our debut on the same date."

"And is that requirement of strategic importance, or simply grandiose showmanship?" I spat, trying to wipe myself down.

"Who knows?" he replied shrugging his shoulders, tan skin contrasting with the mud on his hand. "It is not my place to question: only to follow my God's will, and right know our God has appointed Duftmon as are strategist, and Omnimon has allowed this plan." He continued fixing me with a hard stare.

I felt my body slump. "I know, it's just I'm so frustrated. We are practically _gods_ to these humans, but to stand against the Abomination we have to stand _with them,_ it's galling." I felt a hand rub my hair, and I glared up at the perpetrator. He _knew_ how long it would take to get the mud out of my hair, and yet he does it anyway!

"On the contrary brother, I thought those dresses you made looked quite good, and just think you'll be able to immerse yourself in this cultures clothing style and make up some new designs."

I shook my head removing his hand, and started walking with him towards camp. He was right of course, those women had looked stunning in the patterns I had designed. And Glenn had excellent taste for a human, but enough of that. I turned to Dynasmon, "Speaking of which, those floral patterns were really interesting, I was thinking of incorporating them with American jeans, it would make quite a combination, don't you think?"

He nodded his head, and I continued to bounce my ideas off of him till we reached camp.

Ulforce P.O.V

"I fucking love Germany!" I roared into my phone as I sped down the Autobahn, pushing my baby to the limit. I checked the speedometer around 170 miles per hour, and the best thing it was completely legal! "I'm telling you, bro, it's great here!"

"Yes, I know. This is the _fourth_ time you've called me to tell me this," Magnamon replied dryly, he was no fun.

"It is though," I continued passing another car, really you're going that slow in this lane? Wow what a kill-joy. "Firstly, there's no Bitch to ruin my car." I patted the steering wheel while I mourned my first baby's death. "Secondly, in a day I'm going to play a _killer_ game of Hide and Seek with some Nazi's."

"...That was almost _physically painful_. Brother, your sense of humor is terrible as ever, he sighed and I could almost imagine him pinching his nose.

"Nonsense, Bro, Rina loved my sense of humor, and she was perfectly fine." I had reached 200 miles per hour now, it was a shame that I would have to leave soon.

"Rina kicked a Demon Lord _in the face_. That is _by no definition_ 'normal.'" I could hear him going through something.

"I know. She was made of 100% pure awesomesauce, with another 10% in good taste!"

"That's not even numerically possible," he snapped back, was something wrong? … _Oh!_

"Are you worried about Amy?" he was always such a worrywart, if he could I would imagine he would have two knightmon patrolling with her.

"First off, I don't worry. I merely, feel that without my presence she'll regress. By the way, she knows the code to the apartment complex, _right_?" At this his tone became cold as Antarctic ice in the dead of winter.

 _Scary!_ "Don't worry, bro. I made sure your "daughter" knows the code, and I also stared hard at that girl she was checking out three days ago, so all my cool uncle duties are fulfilled." I assured him as I jinked around someone going insanely slower. My baby's wheels squealed in joy as we snapped around the turn and through the drift.

"She was doing what? Who!" That tone was practically frigid. Afterwards there was a period of silence.

"You're _totally_ not concerned about her at all, bro," I muttered, before we sadly slowed down to exit the Autobahn.

" _Just_ … _Please_ don't call me again just to extoll Germany's virtues."

"You got it, bro, although you should really stop by here, sometime. The Braughts are great, and you could even take Amy here, Dr. Miracle." I hung up as he started to groan. _'Now, go forth my steed! Tonight, we establish the layout of the city, and tomorrow the Pecking Order!'_

Duftmon P.O.V

I entered the building, I glanced at the clock. it was around five P.M. Alphamon should have been in Montreal by now, no doubt drinking out the city's coffee supply after escaping the 'Dark Ages' as he called them. After Omnimon had removed all cash on his person, his credit cards, and any means of him getting coffee. Dynasmon and Crusadermon should be near Nambia. Gallantmon should have been well on his way to where the Ash Beast was currently headed, the thing was a path through Egypt and no one had any idea when it would turn around. Well, until Gallantmon got to it. Omnimon was in New York, Germany would have Ulforce to deal with. Examon should have been in the lower bound for nearly a day at this point, Craniumon had the entrance points to the Digital World locked up, with defensive multiple programs running that would wreck havoc on whomever tried to get close to it, while also sabotaging a _different_ server to mislead whoever attempted to get near the Digital World. Sleipmon should be in his apartment in Hong Kong, and I would have to coordinate with him later. And Gankoomon and Jesmon would depart tomorrow morning to neutralize the Slaughterhouse Nine.

And as I looked around the office of the newest company I was working with, was going to be in Boston for the foreseeable future. I had seen Accord's records, and unlike Bonesaw or Burnscar, he could be reasoned with, and solving world hunger was something that we would sponsor, and when it occurred gain some credit for. Even so, I closed my eyes, and analyzed my data. Where once was a mere trickle of power, a stream had formed, it was nowhere near enough to enable a use of one of my brother's mode changes, but it was a sign that our God was recovering. We'd prepare this world to be something much more appealing for the Digital World to be modeled after. For what would the reflection of a damaged world look like? Nothing that our Lord would like.

I glanced at my own 'mode change,' unlike Gallantmon's Crimson mode or Ulforce's Future Mode, mine was more simple, and yet wilder, combat protocols were enhanced, speed, strength, and defense were bolstered in exchange for my keen intellect. Our God's power would have no exchange made, so in the event that I was forced to use it, and I undoubtedly would some day, I would only hope that my brothers would register as pack members.

Craniumon P.O.V

Screens were all around me, one showed Duftmon sitting in his office, eyes closed; another showed Ulforce's car speeding past, more than likely in violation of _something_ ; while the rest played footage of the various threats or ongoings in the world. I closed my eyes and sighed. If I turned around I would undoubtedly see Yggdrasil's tree and the digimoji swirling around it comforting it. However, I could not bring myself to glance backwards. When I opened my eyes, they focused on the screen showing the Abomination. **I hated it, I did not hate** _ **anything**_ **in the Digital World or in any Human World a Craniumon had been to as much as The Abomination. I wished for it die the slowest, most agonizing death possible, so it could suffer a million times over what it had caused my God. Even now, we could do nothing to it yet. I took a breath and closed my eyes, and focused on a memory.**

Time Unknown, Location Digital World

 _I tore Claim Solas out of the latest Digimon, and loaded its data. These worthless peons could not dare try breach my armor, I was the strongest! Not even the Demon Lords who had begun their advance into the Holy Angels territory could not breach my shield! I knew this to be true. I turned as I felt another approach._

" _Who dares approach Craniumon, the strongest Digimon of this zone?" It was three Digimon, and what was that? It looked like a small Digimon, it had pale blond hair, and barely reached one of the other approaching Digimon's shin. The Digimon approaching was one with a sword held over his shoulder and white armor adorning his chest. To its right was a white digimon with what looked like to be a Wargreymon's and MetalGarrurumon's heads for hands, and to the left of the small digimon was another digimon clad in black armor. Could they be looking for a fight? they looked strong enough to give me a good fight, and take me away from this existence._

" _We are the Royal Knights, formed by our God, Yggdrasil, to safeguard the Digital World." The one with the sword slung over his back stated. "I am Imperaldramon Paladin Mode, to my right is my comrade Omnimon, and to my left is Alphamon. We would like to extend an invitation to join our group."_

 _I burst out laughing. Was this some type of joke? Three megas claiming to serve a "God" of a Digital World? And they were offering me to join their organization? "Ahh, yes a "God of the Digital World," I've heard of Huanglongmon, and his four little pets. I've heard tell of the Demon Lords too; why just a day ago I_ _ **killed**_ _a self-proclaimed "God of the Digital World." So unless your God has the mettle to show himself and defeat me in combat, you can just walk along, or better yet fight me yourself."_

 _Gritting his teeth, Imperaldramon's sword planted itself into the ground, however he was stopped by the small creature placing his hand on him._

" _That won't be necessary," the voice had dual tones and it echoed. The being stepped towards, me and I scoffed was this creature going to fight me._

" _My lady, there is no need for you to besmirch your hands with this arrogant fool," Omnimon stated, "Let us take care of_ — _"_

 _I started laughing harder, 'This_ was their God? A digimon who had to be a rookie at most! _' "No please let the "God" come face me. I'll love the expression in your eyes as I load her data."_

" _Omnimon, Imperialdramon, Alphamon pull back. I shall take care of this." I burst into another round of laughter as they stepped back_

" _You're a brave little Rookie, I'll give you that. And for your bravery, I'll grant you a quick death." I lifted my sword, and made to slice at the creature. My sword stopped. My entire body locked up._

" _As I said, that won't be necessary." The dulcet tone echoed in my ears. "Why do you fight?"_

 _I felt the tension holding me in place loosen around my head. "It is the way of the Digital World: to fight, survive, and fight more powerful foes. Now either release me so we can duel properly, or kill me now. I will not suffer inane prattle." At this, the being began to grimace._

" _What if I offered to change that?" the being asked, looking at me with eyes it's head tilted to the side._

 _I scoffed, "For a self proclaimed "God of the Digital World," you sure are blind. Look around, the Demon Lords' armies clash endlessly. Countless Digimon are being loaded as we speak. It is the way of the world. Not even a God can change it at this point."_

" _I see," the being said before it nodded it's head and closed it's eyes... '_ What is it—' _The world around us went away only to be replaced by a rolling field, around us a town sprung up, and Digimon of all types were living together. I could see two Digimon fight each other, one felled the other, but instead of the data being absorbed, the other Digimon's data reformed into an egg. The image was replaced with another Digimon taking care of the little ones, playing with them, and teaching them how to live peacefully. Multiple images flashed across my eyes, each showing a world where Digimon had come together as one._

 _Without looking to my side, I asked "Why show me this? It is a clever illusion, but that's all it is." My voice trembled._

" _Face me," the voice reached my ears, this time sounding like the whole world was resounding with it's voice. I turned around and did so… This_ _ **was**_ _a God! I knew it in my coding all around me lines of code streamed through it, digimoji swirling in unpredictable eddies. "I had been content to let my creations run free, and to not interfere, in their lives. However, I cannot stand by any longer while the Digital World suffers. But alone, even I will fail. So will you stand with me Craniumon? Where Alpahmon is my beginning, and Omnimon is my end, will you be my shield? Will you help me create the Digital World that I showed you?"_

 _I dropped to my knees, head bowing in reverence. "My God, if you will have me, then from this day forth all my actions will be to fulfill the vision of the future you have bestowed upon me." '_ Besides,' _I had thought._ 'Accomplishing the impossible? There were sure to be a multitude of great foes to test myself against.'

I opened my eyes, only to find that multiple digimoji had clustered around me and one was nuzzling my face. "I was such a fool back then," I muttered. To have doubted that promise my God had given me. Sucking in a deep breath I turned around, and looked at the World Tree. Where it would have been a strong tree, patches of wood were torn out showcasing raw code, I kneeled. "My God, this shall never happen to you again. And were an enemy to come after you in this state your shield will protect you, no matter the personal cost." My God was silent as ever, and I made to turn around only for the tree to pulse once. Suddenly, there were many more digimoji fluttering around me, nuzzling my head, and for the first time since I had came to this world I smiled.

End Interlude 2c: Knights

Authors Note: So this closes the second arc of the Worm Protocol. Next Arc things are going to heat up. As always please review the story telling me what you like or didn't like. I'm a newbie writer, and open to constructive criticism. Also I would like to thank AbZhz101 for being my beta.


	17. Interlude 2d: Cauldron

Authors Note: So going through my fic, I realized something Cauldron hadn't had the best showing, and since I'm trying to avoid fanon pit-falls here's something for their perspective, that I feel is in character, and not showing them to be stupidly evil.

Cauldron:

"Do we have information on what they _are_ or what _exactly_ they can do?" Doctor Mother asked, trying to massage away the headache.

Number Man merely shook his head. "From what we've seen of "Alphamon" they are extremely durable and powerful. As it seemed he was more interested in gathering information rather than fighting, his upper bound is something that would require Alexandria to begin tearing her own body down to match. It's possible, but not something that she could do easily or without severe damage to herself, not including any damage that her opponent would be applying. As well, it seems like there is something more to him, either that he didn't need to show or couldn't access at the moment."

"And the others?"

"Most would be lower on some level, perhaps by as much as fifty percent, but they would all likely have their own skills and specialties, though I believe that this Alphamon would have been one of the highest in the group. So while some may outshine him in their own fields, as an overall warrior, he is likely within the top two, if not the strongest."

"Is all this really necessary?" Legend asked. "They seemed like they legitimately wanted to help."

" _He who wishes for peace should prepare for war,_ " Eidolon replied quoting an old proverb. "They may very well also be wishing that everything goes smoothly, but I'd bet my life that they are also making plans in case this goes wrong."

"But doesn't making these plans encourage both of our sides to try and betray each other later?"

"These Knights are currently part of the hypothetical path that we can use to take down our mutual foe," Contessa said softly, gaze locked on the ground. "However, My Path only tells me about things that are needed to complete it. It doesn't tell me if the Knights or the "god" they worship is secretly worse than Scion is. The _only_ thing we know about it, is that they claim it to be on the same level that Scion is."

"And did you notice what else they claimed?" Alexandria stated walking into the room and the conversation without missing a step. "'It has happened before.' If this god of theirs has tried to destroy humanity before, it would be foolish not to be on alert if it tried to do so again."

"Are we ignoring the second part of that conversation, the part where a fifteen year old teenager, with the help of another alien, literally punched out their God?" Legend looked around the room. "We should prepare for the worst; it would be foolish not to. However, can't you see what they're offering, if they uphold their part of the bargain, we won't have to allow people like Manton to run around creating more Case 53s. Am I the only one who thinks, that this is a good thing?"

"Legend, they claimed he had no superpowers when his _fist was on fire_. And I've been looking for anyone who matched the teen's description. If he ever did exist, it wasn't on this world, so however he managed to overcome their god isn't something they are going to tell us.

"That may be true, but I doubt anybody told that kid how to do that either, and I don't care quite frankly if he did or didn't if more of these species does come, and they confirmed that they will. For the first time in forever we could have hope for actually killing the Endbringers, instead of just leading more people to there deaths."

"A possibility," Number Man conceded. "If the others are in projected estimations then it is likely; assuming of course, that the Endbringers also conform to the projections and parameters we've set for them. I make no guarantees if the Endbringers decide to have a family reunion at a single site."

"Which brings us back to our main problem," Doctor Mother picked up still trying to massage her head. "We have very little on what these things can really _do_. Since their appearance in Dover last summer they've seemed to be normal humans. Some members have done foolish things that made that individual stand out for a time, but until we tried taking one of them, we had no idea they were anything but normal. And as we've just seen, _normal_ is not what I'd have used to describe them."

"So we let them do what they will?" Alexandria growled.

"For now," Contessa replied, eyes fixed on a specific point of wall. "As Legend has pointed out, as of now they haven't made a move against us. And they are still necessary to the Path. I suppose we shall see how much of it is bluster."

"One more thing," Eidolon brought up. "Contessa, if you wanted a Path to Burn the Atmosphere, what would be the quickest way to go about it?"

"Twenty Steps," the precog muttered. "And half of them are specifically being sloppy."

"You could kill their god in twenty steps?" Alexandria asked, impressed.

"Maybe. But it does say that under some type of circumstance, they _can_ make good on their threat."

"Then we should make sure we can do the same."

"Before I leave for New York, I want to make a bet with you all, if these aliens turn out to be purely beneficial to us, you all owe me favors, and get to listen to me subtly rub it in," Legend smirked at his friends.

"William, if I lose this bet, I'll go to all your sons birthdays, and Alexandria will join us in doing a bar crawl, and Contessa will cover it." He shot a look to the two. "And in truth, I really do hope I lose this bet, considering I don't think you'll have much to lose if they do turn on us."


	18. Chapter 12: Here we Go

3.1: Here we go

Time: 2:00 P.M January 3, 2011 Location: Exosphere, above Ellisburg

Examon P.O.V

[ _Sir, calculations have been run. Atmospheric entry and necessary shell have been accounted for. Fire when ready.]_ Caldfwich's tone rang through my mind, were I younger it would have distracted me from focusing my core, wasting precious time, motion, and energy. But I had been with Caldfwich for too long for it to be anything but assuring. ' _Acknowledged.'_ Pendragon's Glory didn't have the coverage needed to kill my target in one shot... Well it did and it didn't. All we knew about the main target was that he was somewhere in the quarantined city. Pendragon's Glory, for all its power, tended not to hit more than one human sized city block at a time.

Avalon's Gate on the other hand was a bit more modular, as the different types of shells that I rained down could be altered to produce different effects. This current one was designed to take advantage of targets hiding behind reinforced walls. The shell would survive the trip through the atmosphere at greater than terminal velocity, burrow through the walls, then disintegrate. The wall of air pursuing the shell insuring that the payload was delivered deep into the former settlement. At the same time, the shell's disintegration would cause all the energy it to be transferred to the air. Then the explosive pressure waves would pass through the settlement, before some hit the quarantine walls and reverberated.

Thus for perhaps twenty milliseconds the entire target range would be an explosive echo chamber, the entering air becoming a more effective plug than if the section wall were still there. Then the pressure would try to disperse through the opening I made, practically vaporizing the ceiling. Anything that had been left inside, well if the pressure waves didn't get them, the shell's payload definitely would. A supervirus targeting biological matter that destroyed its host faster than the host body could replicate it, and one that could not spread outside of my catalyzing agent which quickly oxidizes into a worthless compound, two major ingredients in preventing an epidemic.

I grinned, though no one could see my fangs, bared near the vacuum of space. For the first time in a year, I finally had a target to neutralize, fixing human cars had been a nice distraction, but nothing could compare to looking over the world. Many of my brothers would shout their attacks whether it be from pre-ordained coding, or force of habit. As the time difference between my target experiencing the attack and my declaration could be measured in _hours_ , if they would hear it at all, that habit or coding was one that seemed to have passed me by. I simply held my breath, and mentally gave the command for Ambrosius to fire.

I saw it exit the barrel, I saw the cone of fire surround it, as it reentered the lower atmosphere, and I saw it pierce this Goblin's King's walls and detonate, the sheer force from it's impact causing a deep crater, only for it to blossom in an explosion of energy, and its deadly payload to be dispersed. At this Caldfwich took me away from my overlook, and I noted two other possible targets. One was the Abomination, currently flying across a province of France, and the other a fifteen foot figure wings extended, the sun's rays reflecting off its multitude of wings. Motionless, as if asleep. I saw it's eyes twitch towards me.

 _[Sir, should I start running calculations?]_ Ambrosius tone held a bit of concern. During our time conversing he had seen the reports from what the Simurgh had done, and while my brothers were confident in our data's ability to repair itself and ignore forced commands, it was still worrying. Any being who maintained a likeness to Grandracmon voice manipulation powers deserved to be treated with the utmost caution.

' _No, we wait until they strike first, and two knights will be chosen to intercept this Endbringer when it attacks, the data from the fight will be recorded, and then a move will be made. Until then set us a course towards London, I need to report the mission status and considering what my brothers are doing, the humans will no doubt be panicking.'_

 _[Acknowledged, Sir. Setting course now.]_ Although no one could hear it I let loose a roar heralding my triumph, and the events that were about to come.

Alphamon P.O.V

Location Montreal, Canada, Time 9:00 PM

' _I need to send Duftmon something, nice.'_ He probably realized I would gain some satisfaction from capturing this criminal in particular. Heartbreaker, or Nikos Vasil, was a Master who, quite frankly, I would have no stain on my conscious killing. His power allowed him to subvert the will of people by controlling their emotions. Instead of using it in a beneficial way, by causing hope in capes during Endbringer fights, or soothing the pain of terminally ill patients using positive emotions. He, instead, used it to build a harem of women who would then perform crimes for him and served him in any way possible.

Once those women had children he would get them to trigger, and then they would work for him. I remembered the files I had seen on his children. Hijack had murdered for him, before dropping under the grid, although considering the files I had seen on the Brockton's cape population, he have resurfaced as Regent. I took a deep breath, emotional manipulators were always a pain in the ass. Not to mention he could start using the women he held control over as hostages, so I needed to do this perfectly.

I checked my suit, making sure my appearance looked classy enough. Glancing around it was a bad part of town so to speak. Snow was pouring down on the unplowed street, and the ice hiding beneath. It was in the Mont-Royals city district. I got some strange looks from the passerbys, but that was to be expected, I went down into the poorly lit alleyway. What I knew to be a door was guarded by a bouncer, who looked more like a homeless man in a big jacket. I walked into the alley, pulled out a simple mask that merely covered my eyes, and walked up for him.

He took one look at me and sneered. "Scram, bub. This club be only for the _chicks,_ you get me?"

I didn't know if this was one of Heartbreaker's thralls, set up so that he enjoyed working for the man, and quite honestly, _I didn't care_. I smiled as I buried my fist into his gut. Knocking the wind out of his lungs before he could call a warning, and maintaining the same smile as he began to black out.

Primary warning system unconscious, I shuffled him off to the side huddling him against the wall, his appearance making it look like he was some random hobo that happened to take a nap in this particular alley way.

"Funny, I was told that the Canadians were the epitome of kindness," I muttered to myself. I opened the door, and a blast of comparatively warm air hit me, it felt nice, but then I started to hear the music. It was a chaotic beat that reminded me that while the human world offered great things like coffee, they also had things like dubstep. I continued down the stairs, until I entered an overhang Strobe lights flashed throughout the room, and in front of me a DJ was playing a music.

On the lower floor women danced lightly clad, some completely nude, drank, did drugs, and at the other end of the wide room on an opposite side was my target and ...I could castrate a person and still be considered a hero, _right_? It was a scene ripped straight from _Caligula_. Women waved fans, at him, and served him drinks, one was sitting on his lap grinding on him, and I suppressed the urge to hurl. He was physically impressive I suppose, fairly tall and lanky with long black hair. This man had been doing this for years, and for a brief moment the woman on his lap was replaced with Kyoko.

At this point, I had been relatively sure that this man needed to be dealt with, but when I noticed what I next did, I became convinced that this human I'd been sent to deal with was less than scum. At the stairways leading up to the shrine to hedonistic pleasure and self indulgence, two young children were standing. They were watching this happen, whether thinking this was _normal_ , or having seen far too much worse to care, I couldn't tell. _I was going to break_ _ **something**_ _at least._ For the first time in three months I lost my lazy smile, fractal code swirled around me as I changed into an eight foot tall knight, adorned with black and gold armor, I grabbed the DJs head and slammed it against the turntable, knocking both him and the horrible music out in less than a second. _"Party's over"_ , I said as everybody looked at me. Heartbreaker roughly pushed a woman off of his lap and stood up.

As he opened his mouth I cut him off. "Would everyone _other_ than Mr. Heartbreaker please leave?" I let the silence sink in before speaking up again. "Also, for every woman you threaten or cause harm to when I move to take you into your very nice cell in the Birdcage, I break a bone. That includes the children. And to whatever diety you worship, if you cause any of them to kill themselves, I'll cut off your cock, break every bone in your body, including those in your ear, and make you what you are on the inside, a worthless cunt. So what will it be Heartbreaker, either way you're going into a jail cell, your compliance in going just makes it so that I don't get to hurt you. So, what's it going to be, dumbass?"

"I'll tell you my answer, alright. I think you can—" I felt the nigglings of emotional manipulation. Honestly, Lilithmon was much better at it. But more importantly, _I had my answer._

" **Digitalize of Soul"**

A blast of green energy tore across the room shot from my outstretched arm, and would have hit him if the woman who had been on his lap didn't jump in the way. The blast was merely concussive, but just for that there was going to be an "accident" when I took him in.

He scrambled backwards "Get him!" Fear was in his eyes, as he shouted it at me, and I suppressed the urge to growl as every woman on the dancefloor looked at me with glazed eyes, full of forced desire to protect him. Permanent Paralysis it was then. I might just castrate him for this anyway, if I actually had to fight them with _anything_ approaching my full strength they would die, so death threat.

I released a primal screech, the Death X line may have been completely exterminated with All Delete, but my species digivolution line, _birthed_ the Death X Line. It was a screech that heralded death, misery, and suffering in the digital world; families had crawled over themselves to get away from the oncoming horde of Death X, for the victims an unlife of eternal suffering was all that existed. Forced love, and even real love, crumbled before it as an even more primal instinct took over. _Fear_.

The tide of people coming up the stairs turned on itself, the front pushing back in frenzy to get away. On the other side of the room the woman were clenching their ears, and crying while the children clutched their ears,leaning against each other. I was going to take care of them. No young child, digimon or human, deserved to hear that screech. I saw my target flee the room, he must have had another exit on the other side, still I had removed his hostages. I jumped, across the room careful to avoid the disco ball, I landed on the other platform, one of the kids lifted their arms towards me only for the other to practically pull the other one down. I burst forward after the target, my head crashing through the wall. and the scum was on the other end of the hall, he spun toward me and lifted his hand. My next step was interrupted as my leg spasmed, forcing me to kneel, I was having none of that.

" **Digitalize of Soul"**

The blast hit him, and carried him to the wall. Friction held him there for a moment, before gravity peeled his body off. It fell down with a light thump, and I slowly walked over to him. He was about to stand up when I reached him, I kicked his body into the side corridor, and I heard an audible crack, probably a rib.

"Sst stop," he made out through pained gasps. He started to scream as I loomed over him, picked his whole body up in one hand, and threw it into the other corridor. This time he didn't get up, though I could see his chest rise and fall, so I hadn't killed him. ' _Warning, Primary target, has multiple cracked ribs, and damage to spine.'_

I shifted into my six foot form, and started going through his pockets, until I found a phone.

Rage bubbling into something less destructive, I punched in the emergency response number.

"Hi, I have Heartbreaker here and have convinced him that he has made… some rather poor life choices."

"Who is making this call?" A male voice came through, disbelief evident.

"Alphamon of the Royal Knights." I replied tone cordial. As soon as the operator realized what I had said, the phone went dead for a minute before I heard some ruffling sounds and a voice distantly shouted.

"Holy shit, we have one here, says he got Heartbreaker." Hmm the others had probably completed their tasks, or had begun them anyway. They actually believed me no real questions asked, that would have been more surprising if I didn't know Examon had wiped a city from existence and then showed footage of it on PHO.

"Uhh sir, what's your location, a unit of Dragon's will come by to pick up Heartbreaker, what's his status?"

"The convincing of Mr. Heartbreaker _may_ have cracked some ribs, and _may_ have damaged his spine, but he's alive and in no immediate threat of dying. also the room behind me is filled with thralls, and children. So while I _do_ understand the need to verify if this is real, I would really like it if you hurried up and sent the call to Dragon to get over here along with some ambulances for the people. My location is at Le'More street, and down the alleyway with a rusted bell between buildings. Fair warning, I experienced one other Parahuman attack whom I didn't neutralize. Although, they will probably be taken care of by the time you get here." At this I disconnected.

I turned around, standing on the rubble was a boy hugging a little girl closely, who looked at me with defiance. I started walking towards them only to stop when they started to back away.

"I won't hurt you," I said making sure to slowly lift my hands, "It's just your father I needed to capture."

"Why did you do that? Daddy did nothing wrong!" the girl shouted at me only for the little girl's mouth to be covered by what I assumed to be the half-sibling.

"Shut, up," he hissed at her. Then he turned his attention back to me. "She doesn't know what she's talking about." the boy's eyes darted toward the exit as he said this. Obviously judging whether he could escape with the girl.

"In a couple of minutes the Guild and one of Dragon's suits is going to come into this place and take your father to prison, if you run or use your powers to resist their arrest, there is nothing I can do to help you."

The boy scoffed, "I've already killed, trust me. I'm going strait to the Birdcage with him if they take me."

I resisted the urge to turn around and literally stomp Heartbreaker's cock into a pile of mush. "Unlikely, you're underage and can claim emotional distress. Considering everything I've heard about your sperm donor, no one would question it. I'll even vouch for you, and your sister once you get off and onto your own…"

"Nicolas. My name is Nicolas." He said, only to glance back as he heard something stir. Making it's way to the dance floor, when he turned around his face was pale.

A mechanized head of a dragon poked it's head through the rubble, and stopped three feet away from the two children.

"You must be Dragon," I cheerfully guessed. I turned and picked up the pile of broken flesh that less than half an hour ago had been a monster in man's skin and tossed it forward. It moaned a bit on impact. "And _that_ is Heartbreaker. I'd ask that you allow the normal police to deal with Nicolas and his sister. They need some time to recover from what's happened. Nicolas is one of the children Heartbreaker has forced to trigger, but he doesn't want to fight, and certainly won't get any crazy idea like escaping on route to the local police center, _right_?" I asked. Nicolas pale face nodded quickly towards me, and hugged his sister tighter.

"Well, if that's all then I must be on my way then, and oh, I almost forgot," I walked past the mechanized Dragon whose head swiveled around to face me. "Nicolas, give me a call if something happens, trust me you'll know the number pretty soon."

"Wait, a moment of your time?" A feminine voice came out from Dragon's speakers, It was strange talking to a mechanical suit of armor, knowing there was a human behind it. 

"Yes, Ms. Dragon?" It was important to be polite even if I had dropped a sack of excrement at her feet just a second ago.

"If you could follow me to the local Guild branch, we would like to ask you some questions." _Did my brothers do something stupid? Dammit, they had_ _ **one**_ _job each._

"I haven't done anything incriminating, have I?" I asked making sure my eyes did not glance at the broken pile of excrement.

"Standard Master Protocols when dealing with someone like Heartbreaker," The voice assured me, although it had gained some amusement.

"Of course," I agreed, that made sense. ...And gave them an opportunity to find more out about my brothers, but heroes did not scorn other heroes. And for anyone else being controlled would be a completely reasonable and legitimate concern.

"One thing before we go there, do you guys have coffee there?" I hadn't had time to grab a cup on the way to Montreal, and considering the recent emotional turmoil I could use some.

"We do." The voice now had a tinge of curiosity, and I added another reason to enjoy staying in my digital form, nobody could see how much I enjoyed throwing people off, yet still maintain an air of class.

End 3.1

So the first half of Arc 3 is going to be dealing with the knights initial move, and then dealing with the fallout and ramifications of having thirteen top tier "parahumans" running around, and not answering to the local parahuman agencies in place around the world.


	19. Chapter 13: Primo Victoria

3.2: Primo Victoria - Sabaton

Author's Note: I love writing for Ulforce, and for those of you who disliked the changing P.O.V bear with me. I promise character arcs, with singular perspective from the knights are going to start after this Arc. Also damn fight scenes, seriously.

Ulforce P.O.V

' _Duftmon can be such a bore,_ ' I thought as I floated over the building that had a monthly Gesellschaft meeting for some of the lower lieutenants. I knew there were four parahumans in the room, one was named Thor, who unlike the mythical God couldn't call down storms. Merely shoot of bolts of high powered electricity as well as maintained strengthened speed and power when he got near an electrical source. Another was called Loki, he could maintain illusions, but I had faith I could neutralize him. (Maybe I could giftwrap him for Sleipy and give it to him on Father's Day?) The other two were Mooi and Magni, Thor's teenage sons who had a form of their father's power. Where Mooi inherited his father's blaster power, Magni had inherited his father's enhanced state when exposed to various elements with differing effects.

Of course to take down the Gesselschaft in a short amount of time, this group had to be captured, with nuance; speed; and, most importantly, _subtlety_. Duftmon had been very clear when he told me this, he even had written out the word with it's definition.

I burst into the room through the roof window, "Members of the Dickwaffe! You are all under arrest!"

I adjusted my head to avoid the bolt of electricity Thor had sent at me. ' _They seem to have taken exception to that.'_

I activated my two arm blades, and shot towards Loki, who I identified by a star like symbol on his nazi uniform—I always loved it when my enemies made themselves easy to see. I lifted my arm blade to incapacitate him, only for my fist to pass through him. ' _Okay, Duftmon may have had a point when he told me to do this quietly.'_ A bolt of electricity hit my wings, and I was surrounded by a stream of fire. I spun around wings flapping, the back wind strong enough to disperse the flames. That always had the effect of establishing, that I was the coolest, and my enemies were screwed. I checked the room no sign of Loki, but he probably was waiting somewhere in the works. Maybe if I took care of the muscle I could flush him out.

I started, towards them at a slow stride, and walked towards them feet crunching on the glass. Thor, and Mooi had renewed their attacks with a stream of fire and electricity, fire wasn't going to do anything at this heat, and well with my blades, it like the movie _Starwars_. They were dissipating the electricity, not that Thor could see this considering the cone of fire had completely consumed me, and the side of the room I was on.

"Come on guys, you're doing it all wrong! Sparky, you're supposed to be shouting about "Unlimited Power!" when you throw electricity at me, and unlike Sidious you're face isn't all messed up so I can take you serio… Oh, who am I kidding? A five foot nazi, shooting electricity at me while his son helps him is still laughable." My voice rose above the roar of flames, and I burst toward them, blowing out the fire at the same time. They dove to the side to try and avoid me, like that would ever work. Only for a figure that seemed to be made of flames to be meet my charge. I could actually feel the heat, and the area surrounding him warped due to the heat. He leaped onto my face, and I let him, it was hot, but I could work with this. I let his body weight push me to the ground, and then allowed him to start wailing on my face, the blows didn't faze me, but that was never the intention of the first place.

"Not so big now are you, you blue bastard?" the small one shouted trying to kick me. _'Yeah, that's it. I am_ _ **totally not a threat at the moment**_ _. Get closer.'_ I mentally snorted even as I made a fake grunt of pain. I wanted to sell this. ' _Now, where's the last one?'_

Then there was a third person. It looked like Loki, but I waited. It could be an illusion. He spit into my face. Well, I hadn't heard anything about him making solid, or liquid as the case may be, illusions so that was probably him. I didn't even bother to reign in my smirk.

"What's so funny, freakshow?" the one on top of me yelled as he continued to try to hurt me.

In response I _blurred_. Suddenly, I was free and they had no idea how. My fist smashed into Loki's face, and I heard an audible crack as he was lifted off the ground, "I'm laughing about multiple things, but the biggest has to be that guy's face. The second reason, well that's for you to find out _outside_." As I said this my chest began to light up. As even a Rookie could tell you, when shit started lighting up that was your cue to _run_. These guys, well, if I put them in a puzzle race against a Rookie, my money would be on the Rookie.

" **Ray of Victory"**

The wannabe Meramon got hit with the blast, and he flew out the window behind him. I blurred behind Thor, and clasped his head in my hand before I threw up his body, and then spun around to land a perfect roundhouse kick on him. Seriously, human actions movies were great! They got so many things wrong, well they would have if I wasn't awesome, but still. That was three down and one to go, Mooi had started bathing me with fire, although I could see the fear in his eyes. I blurred in front of him, and squeezed his arms so tight I could feel them struggle to not shatter.

"Come on kid, the wannabe thunder god and your brother are down and I may have have caused the magician to have brain damage. Do you _really_ wanna keep on fighting?" Duftmon had forwarded me the files on the Gesselshaft parahumans training program. This kid, since he could probably walk, had been put through torture. All just so he could trigger, fight and die for a stupid human organization that wouldn't know anything of superiority if it walked up to them, and yelled in their ear.

"You may have taken us down, but there are more of us! The Gesselschaft will not fall to some freakish reptile." It was a desperate attempt to save face. I'd heard more than a few while traveling with Taichi. It wasn't even that good.

I grinned. "Wanna bet? I'm thinking... less than a day. I mean at the speed I'm showing you right now, this is taking forever. and well if you're going to be that way fine." I simply punched him in the face causing him to go unconscious. "And the only reason I'm not going full speed is that I'm pretty sure your face would melt off due to the friction of my punches." Not that he could hear me at this point but, why did humans have to be so fragile? Hm, did that Meramon wannabe hit the ground yet? Maybe I should check on that... Yep, hit the ground. Still aware enough to groan, though he sure wasn't moving.

Now onto more fun matters, let's see... Do you have a phone? Why, yes, you do. I was interrupted by sirens. Huh well, nevermind, problem solved. Although that _was_ a good response time.

I blurred over to the other three parahumans, bringing them over to Mooi, I left them there in a pile, but before I did I changed to my human form and took a picture with my phone of Loki. Yep, mission accomplished. Onto the next target.

Dynasmon P.O.V

Location: Nambia, Windhoek

' _Really, Crusadermon gets too invested into matters such as this,'_ I mused as I watched my comrade practically teleport, using one of the ribbons to bisect the Shadow Snake only for it to split into two smaller shadow snakes.

" **ARRGH, Trash should know when to die."** I _would_ have pointed out Ulforce, but I doubt Crusadermon was in any mood to appreciate the humor.

My musing was interrupted as I felt something tap me only for a warm breeze to drift by, _'Oh, that's right! tanks. They're firing at us.'_ There was no way I was letting these mammals interrupt my comrade's much needed stress relief. He had only gotten worse since this "Mord Nag" had called him a "she." Really, humans and their genders.

I caught the next shell, spun it around and tossed it back into the barrel of the one who had fired it.

"Would'st thou _please_ not interrupt my brother's duel, you worthless curs?" I admired their spirit in the face of such impossible odds, but one should not interrupt another Knights duel, whether or not the opponent held a shard of that vile Abomination.

My answer was for another shell to splash off of my armor. _'Humans,'_ I sighed. "Very well then." I flicked soot off of my armor. "Know that you have chosen your fate." A white hot shadow of a dragon made of flames erupted from my form for a moment and hung there.

" **Breath of Wyvern"**

The tanks melted as the azure and white dragon consumed them, killing the inhabitants inside almost instantly. I felt a momentary drain, but it was nothing compared to what was happening in another part of the city.

Crusadermon practically danced as four shadow snakes pursued him in the air, Mord Nag had gone underground doubtless, as Crusadermon teleported into one's incoming maw, and bashed it's face in with _Pile Bunker._

" **Come out and face me! or has the Queen of Trash finally realized that she's worthless**! **?** "

In response, a larger shadow snake to rose out of the ground, my eyes narrowed at this I found Mord Nag to be worse than the other Parahumans. Where others merely got their power and had to make do with the power level given, Mord Nag's shadow creature had grown stronger at the start of the fight when it had dove into a house and came out bigger. I had flew over the house to see shredded clothes, and blood stains. I held little feeling towards humans. Once, they had been opponents to my lord, and enemies, but my lord would have never consumed other Digimon to get stronger. No, my Lord was the God of the Digital World, and it was my honor to serve. What use had my Lord of Digimon data? Even ones such as we, the Royal Knights, were of no use, in increasing power.

I wondered how many humans this villain had consumed to face Crusadermon.

"Crusadermon, finish this _now_!" _'After all, Omnimon was_ _ **very**_ _specific that we_ _ **not**_ _completely devastate the population, and I have yet to break the second set of orders to Crusadermon.'_

Crusadermon at the moment was jumping building from building as the shadow creature, now noticeably larger, pursued him.

"Just a minute, dear brother, I have her right where I want her!" Crusadermon dropped out of sight, four blades pulling themselves into position, the snake pursued her only for it to start to shoot up in the sky, and bulge, before it was eviscerated by a whirlwind of blades. I saw him grasp Mord Nag in his fist, and squeezed until the human's head couldn't take it anymore. There was a wet plop. I glanced to my side to see the humans were staring at the sight as if they couldn't believe their eyes. Let's see, no screaming in terror yet… so we hadn't gotten the _worst_ reaction possible and I could now reveal the second part of the mission. I flew over to Crusadermon, and landed beside him, "You were flawless, dear brother. If only our other siblings could be here to have seen it."

"Hardly! I was just taking care of the trash that thought itself above other trash… Even so, it was nice to finally experience battle again after so long, and I thank you for not interfering. But onto business, what are our next targets?" I could hear the hope in his voice. Which only made this next tidbit of news even worse.

"My brother," I began in a conciliatory tone. "Omnimon delivered to me a second set of orders. He felt that while we should continue in removing the warlords, he felt that with your experience and the lack of the true controlling power in Africa that you are to stay here, and build up a nation so that we may have a powerbase free from other governments…"

" **Unacceptable! Brother for the first time in what is near a year, I am free to partake in battle, and Omnimon saddles me with this! What does Omnimon expect me to do, teach the humans to fight on par with us?"**

"It is my belief that Omnimon feels that you have the most experience in organizing and training groups of people, as seen with the Knightmon."

"There is a difference between training squires who with time can hold the lines against the Nightmare Army, and mewling pathetic things such as humans, surely Duftmon would be more suited to this?" His tone held a sorrowful disbelief.

"You know Duftmon is busy with the company, he has probably already taken it over, and will have supplies to help run Nambia within the week. I understand your sorrow, brother, I do, however were not the Knightmon mere Pawnchessmon once?"

"They were, but even then they understood their purpose! They understood things such as service to one's lord and how to protect each other! Humans, on the other hands are pathetic things that will turn on each other the second I turn my back!" I pondered this.

"Perhaps you are looking at this the wrong way," I muttered, and quickly continued under his glare. "Do not think of it as a burden, merely think of it as something to present to our Lord. Just imagine our Lord looking out upon this world, only to see a sprawling nation loyal to him, when you teach the humans do it as you would the Knightmon. Think of it like Digivolution. Right now this nation is littered with the suffering of humans, but under your guidance, they can be elevated to something more. We may not have Knightmon, but perhaps these humans can become something, apreachable."

He sighed, before lifting his hand to cover his helm, he muttered something to himself. Louder he said, "I will accept this… task Omnimon has set before me. But only because it is beneficial to the digital world, I fully believe that this is a worthless, waste of time and energy, but I will try to the best of my abilities." He straightened. "I'm going to need to speak with this Mord's Nag second in command then. I'm going to need a list of the resident trash that Mord Nag kept about. I need them gone in some way, and then I need to make announcements to the rest of the country. And, brother, I assume you've been ordered to continue on to other targets..."

I shook my head furiously, "No. Omnimon was explicit in his orders to assist you in any way, shape, or form; and had he ordered me to continue on without I would find someway to prolong the length of those orders." I spoke with a grin.

At this his posture changed, "Perhaps Omnimon isn't such a fool after all. Well then, come, Dynasmon, we have a country to rebuild, and a nation to defend."

I smiled at the steel in his tone, "But of course brother. _Our Swords, flash together..."_

" _Our codes move as one."_ He picked up the old saying.

" _Till the end of time will the Royal Knights be victorious."_ We finished together, affirming a mere part of the saying. "Brother, if it is any consolation Gallantmon got sent to a much worse location…"

"Hmm, what's so bad about it?"

"Nothing. Or rather, not much. It's dry and arid, however bread is a delicacy and is in short supply."

"It seems no one was spared Omnimon's vengeance, although I wonder what Gallantmon did?" he mused.

"Alphamon explained it as something about couple counselling. It was strange how serious Alphamon was."

"I wasn't aware that their friendship was in danger? Humans are so strange," he muttered as we approached what appeared to be Mord Nag's main complex.

"Tis true brother," I affirmed walking side by side with him.

Gallantmon P.O.V Location Sahara Desert: Near Egypt Time: January 3rd

My feet trod on the Sahara Desert past the line of people heading away from the Ash Beast. Trucks passed me by, followed by caravans of camels and mules as people of every age moved to escape it. The only thing that was the same was the look of fear mixed with cold acceptance of what was happening. How often had I seen such faces? Too often.

The Ash Beast itself was aptly named, looking like a giant cloud of ash with flashes of light was covering the horizon from a distance. _'It's like the D-Reaper... Except less threatening,'_ I thought. ...And for a brief moment, the giant cloud of ash was replaced by an encroaching wall of red, pink, and black.

I shook my head to clear it. I had a job to do, and getting lost on memory lane wasn't going to help me do it. I was at the end of the fleeing humans when I was stopped by someone pulling on my sleeve. It was a young boy probably no more than seven. I could see his ribs, and the lack of someone grabbing his hand and pulling him away from the foreigner who was walking towards the cloud of death, suggested that he was an orphan. It was amazing how of everyone, arm personnel, community leaders, and those who had so much, the only one who stopped to care about someone else was the one who had nothing. It was saddening and uplifting at the same time.

"You're going the wrong way," the Boy said, looking up at me with worry and confusion. Three responses from three different lifetimes came to mind. One would have me push the human away, the other would have me simply ignore him, and the last one would have me comfort him.

I went with the last one. "I don't think I am, and you should probably follow the other people." I finished my words by moving to place my hand on his hand, only for him to flinch.

"You won't come back if you go into that." He was pulling harder at my sleeve, and I was momentarily touched by the concern shown by one child. Kneeling down so I was face to face with him, I took off my backpack and handed it to him.

"Hold onto that. I'll come back for it later. That's a promise, and I always keep my promises." At that point he began to scurry away for his life. Maybe he believed me, maybe he couldn't waste any more time on a crazy man, it didn't matter. He was going to be safe, I'd make sure of it. I turned around and with a swirl of light, I returned to my Digital Form for the first time in months, and with a burst of speed Gallantmon, the Virus Royal Knight, was rocketing towards the Ash Beast.

I entered the edge of cloud, weak explosions rattling against my armor, but with they didn't matter. My Digizoid armor had weathered the assault of a sustained assault Beelzemon's Double Impact, compared to that, this was nothing. I shot through them, still looking for my target. It was about ten minutes of searching later that I found it. He was in the middle of a swirling mass of fire caused by his power, and I could make out his features shifting from a lion's to a canine's before his form was covered by fire again. He hadn't made a move towards me. I don't even think he knew I was here. If he did, he certainly didn't recognize the threat I represented.

If my foe wasn't a mass-murderer, I would have informed him of my intent to injure and/or kill. However, the rules of Honor did not apply to monsters.

" **Final Elysion** "

A beam of concentrated holy energy rushed towards the Ash Beast. The explosions did nothing to slow its progress or weaken the blow. The full power of my attack disintegrated the top half of his body before detonating on a sand dune. _'Well... That anti-climatic.'_ I turned around, ready to leave when I noticed something. The explosions hadn't stopped. My instincts honed from multiple lives screamed at me to move. I had only begun to move when something caught the edge of my face and sent me flying through multiple dunes. My ears were ringing a bit from that. _'Alright, I deserved that one.'_

The instant I regained my footing, I had to shoot to the side avoiding his follow up lunge. He got a side full of Gram for his trouble. It tore through his flesh easily, the only problem was that the wound healed as fast as I cut. _'Great, this really_ _ **is**_ _going to be like fighting the D-Reaper.'_ On instinct, I stabbed through the fire with Gram. From the incoherent babble of RAGE, I probably got one of his eyes. Not like he'd need them where he was going anyway.

" **Royal Saber** "

I swung Gram down. The beam of lightning tore straight through his chest, but to my dismay most of the energy had been diverted last second. _'Energy Manipulation! The only reason the Final Elysion hit was because he wasn't expecting it .'_ So that's how it is, eh?' I yanked Gram out of the still regenerating monster and kicked him full force, sending him flying away again, and jumped straight into the air. I somehow made out his form as he began to recover, his face fully taking the form of a lion's head and a pair of wings formed on his back. Still, he hadn't seen where I went, what with how he was spinning around trying to find me. Really, no one ever looks up. You'd think they'd have learned with so many more individuals who can fly in this world. Oh well, his loss, my gain. My left arm resummoned Aegis and it started charging again. I was descending now, but it was far too late when he looked to see me.

" **Final Elysion** "

This time the holy beam disintegrated him fully. The resulting blast sent me skidding backwards, my feet crunching on the newly-formed glass. I tensed, this thing had survived a Final Elysion before, I wasn't going to chance it, so I was really more annoyed than surprised when his body reformed again in a swirl of fire.

"How many times do I have to destroy you before you die?" I snarled at him. and shot towards at full speed I raised Gram to spear him—

An explosion comparable to Examon's shells detonated against my armor sending me flying back, onto the ground. _'A trap? Or had he actually reacted to my speed? Or something else?'_ I didn't have long to ponder because he had already jumped onto me. He raised his claws now gleaming with energy, and tore straight into my armor. _'Shit, it feels like Beelzemon's Darkness Claw! How in the hell?'_ The attack had somehow gotten through my armor, and he wasn't letting up. He was going to attack again, and I felt a vile presence rise up to embrace him.

 _'NoNoNoNoNo! The Hazard, it was reacting to him!'_ I tried to pull him off only for his claws to sink deeper, "Let! Go!" I shouted at him. "You'll die!" I smashed his face in, conveniently ignoring the fact that I was trying to kill him, no one deserved to die like that. The Hazard symbol on my chest started emanating a red light, and then I blacked out...

I woke up in a crater covered in ash. Coughing and sputtering, I opened my eyes to meet the cheery glare of a noon-day sun. I checked myself over, my armor was badly dented from the explosion and there were rends in it from where the Ash Beast had torn it. My body below the torn armor wasn't too much better. As I sat up and looked around red lightning jumped from the glass, and I looked back around my chest symbol. It was still leaking data, but the Hazard was thankfully inert. Painful, but nothing life-threatening.

I shook off the ash that had gathered on my armor and jumped out the crater. The caravan that I had passed earlier had come back, _'Probably wondering why the ash cloud is gone.'_ I landed in front of the crowd that had formed and started walking towards them. They all, somewhat predictably, started backing up. _'Yeah, Omnimon, send the guy whose experience in the human world boils down to dealing with Japan to Asia Minor. No instead send him to a desert to a people he doesn't know the first thing about. That'll work out_ _ **real**_ _well.'_ I made to reassure them when someone pushed through the crowd. It was the Boy, he ran up to me and lifted up my bag, a smile on his face.

I kneeled down and grabbed one of the straps. "Thank you," I said patting his head, and this time he didn't flinch.

End 3.2: Primo Victoria - Sabaton


	20. Chapter 14: Mothmons Wings Flap

3.3: Mothmon's Wings Flap, Leviamon's Tsunamis Crash

January 3rd, 2011 8:00 AM Memphis, Tennessee

 **Jesmon P.O.V**

It felt amazing being in my Digital Form after so long. Already Atho, Rene, and Por had been able to save thirty people in the nearby city! My only regret was my current company, and what I was doing instead of personally saving people.

"Master, we know three of their members are there in that warehouse, why aren't we completing the mission?" These monsters had murder counts in the hundreds of thousands low balled, and right below us, we had confirmed with our own eyes that the villains Crawler, Bonesaw, and Shatterbird were chewing time around a stasis pod of some sort.

"Okay first off, Brat, I'm not enjoying this anymore than you are, but it's much better if we take them out in one strike, so that the fight doesn't branch into urban areas of the city." Master fixed me with a look that suggested that I was stupid, and I grit my teeth before looking away. That's when felt it an itching sensation in the back of the net. It was coming directly from the warehouse, Could they have a victim/hostage? At almost the same time, I noticed a white van pull into the street carrying the taint of the Abomination. I closed my eyes and focused more deeply on the taint, I could make out six more presences. Within the group of six one felt distinctly different, almost as if it wasn't there. Still they were close enough for a coordinated strike, and as the brushing feeling increased I made my decision.

"Master, you take care of the van, I'll take care of the warehouse and rescue the hostages." We were seven buildings away, watching from the roof of a highrise. Utilizing my tail blade I burst off the concrete, Atho, Rene, and Por already ahead of me. They covered the distance in an instant, and in just a few seconds later I burst into the building. Within my first glance I assessed the situation and realized what needed to be done. There was a family, of four three of them were… Fused together in a misshapen fusion of flesh, and organs. I could see their mouth's opening and closing in pain. What had to have been their daughter looked at them, and was openly sobbing as Bonesaw laughed like a Rookie playing with it's favorite toy. I lost any misgivings I had of killing Bonesaw; Lucemon's Child Form had overlapped her image.

Before they had even registered my presence, Atho had crossed the room, spearing Shatterbird through the skull before diving down and splitting her in half. Suddenly, they were down their usual mass destruction trick. Master could take care of Burnscar; Rene and Por, slammed into Crawler carrying the beast outside the building, leaving me alone with Riley, or Bonesaw, and her biological monstrosity. It vaguely made me think of Kimeramon, except where that beast was full of mindless rage, this one only screamed in sorrow. Bonesaw fixed me with a look that almost reached the level of hate I felt for her.

"Why'd you do that?" she pouted once I landed in front of the young girl. Shielding her eyes from the horrible sight.

"It's time to pay for your crimes, Riley," I replied, forcing my voice not to display the hate I felt. and I felt a cold satisfaction as dark look overtook her face.

"There's no Riley!" she shouted. "Riley wasn't a good girl. Bonesaw is, Mr. Jack said so. And when he gets here, you're. going. to. be. in. ." She let the syllables of the last couple of words hang off, half singing them.

"You're right," I agreed, smirking as I seemed to throw her off. " _Riley_ died that night with her family. _You_ are only a shattered reflection put together by a pathetic man, and I'm not worried about Slash. I'm pretty sure Master pulped his head, and like a _good girl_ you should go to where your daddy is, Bonesaw." That's right. Training under Master gave me all the skills to push all the right buttons.

"Your lying! Mr. Jack would never die!." As she finished saying this a spider like creatures leaped from the corners of the room, they probably had come from the basement, I didn't even take my eyes off of her. I smirked again.

" **Schwertghist"**

Rene and Por joined Atho in a swirling dance around me. The three becoming an orange wall of blades, slicing all the spiders that dared touch it to bits. "It's time to put this ghost to bed, Bonesaw." There were no more words, no more sounds.

" **Tekken Seibai** "

I burst forward and with clinical precision decapitated her. I made sure Atho covered the recently orphaned girl's eyes. I cursed that I had failed to save her family. I could at least make sure she didn't see any more horrors today. I approached the the biological abomination, with a weary feeling on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry."

 **Gankoomon P.O.V a few minutes before**

"Yggdrasil dammit!" I roared after the brat, "That's it! Your next training session is going to be in a fucking volcano with the lesson being 'Listen to your fucking master, Brat!'" _'What does he think he'll find in there? Three villains singing Kumbaya? No, knowing Bonesaw's profile, he's probably going to have to put some people out of their misery, and then mope over it. ...I'll string him up by his knees since he doesn't have ankles anymore."_

Still, the van was fast approaching, and since I _did_ have my target, I burst off the rooftop and observed as the Brat smashed through a wall. Where _did_ he learn his manners from? There was a perfectly serviceable door, _right there_.

When I was just over the van, I used Himukamuy to rocket downwards. Legs crashing onto the van's hood and flattening the car, causing the van to stop dead. But of course since nothing could be easy, I had only time to look up when a nude women painted black and white appeared right in front of me, nails like claws reaching for my visor. I instantly went to my back before using my arms to help propel my feet into her gut, and sending her flying up. I had Himukamuy watch her. The Brat had already dispatched one member, and knowing him it was probably Shatterbird, leaving me to deal with Burnscar and the rest of the motley mix of marauding murderers.

Inside the vehicle, I could see a figure through the cracked glass making a slashing motion. I ducked. Not fast enough avoid having some hairs float to the ground. ' _Whelp, he's going to be popped like a zit.'_ My hand lashed out though the now ruined windshield, grabbed his head, and I squeezed. I felt momentary resistance before my hand was covered in brain matter.

' _Next target, Burnscar.'_ Just as I made this decision, Himukamuy alerted me to the Siberian's incoming attack. I felt him move to strike her, only for her claw to pierce right through his fist and continue unabated towards my head. I shot to the side, causing the van to flip three times before it impacted another building. As I impacted onto the side of the building, I watched as a crater formed where the Siberian landed, only for her to languidly rise up, and start walking towards me. _'Wonderful. I always had a thing for assertive women. It was an urge to run screaming.'_

"I've seen better," I started, causing her to stop momentarily. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure you'd look better if you lost the whole black and white paint, and the murderous habits for fun and no profit, but then again…" I stopped talking for a bit as I raised my hand to my chin as if pondering something. I must have looked ridiculous standing on the side of a building. "Lilithmon has the biggest rack I've ever seen, and she's _way_ worse than you, personality wise. She'll rot you to nothing if you look at her _right_. But on the other hand, Venusmon is just as hot and well, she's _still_ kind of a bitch. And Junomon is _all Tsun_ , if you get my drift. So yeah, kinda falling short on my expectations honestly."

My head snapped to the side as the van door shot forward, and a metallic hand shot out gripping the sides, and pulling what might have once been a man out dragging along with a bleeding woman who I identified as Burnscar.

"I'm going to kill you," Siberian growled, obviously done with my routine.

"You know that's _exactly_ what Lilithmon said too, while spitting out acid and commanding her thralls to attack! Of course, I ended up punching her into whole 'nother plane of existence, but progress is progress, I guess." I shrugged, then rushed Mannequin and the downed current target.

Siberian moved to intercept me, but I was ready.

" **Chabudai Gaeshi"**

Hinukamuy tore his fingers into the ground, and his digisoul spread over the patch of street converting it into a bastardized form of chrome digizoid and launched it at her, considering how easily she had torn through Hinukamuy, I sure did _not_ want her getting her claws on me. The chrome digizoid hit her like one of my punches, and just as I expected it shattered, but the mere moments it gave me were all I needed. I had crossed to the other side of the street and landed before Mannequin and Burnscar. A chain hand tore through the air towards me, I didn't have time for this.

Hinukamuy body slammed the metal body into paste, while I made sure Burnscar learned about the local sewer system, up close and personal.

I then spun around, Hinukamuy's fist overlapping mine, to smash the Siberians face, it was a direct hit, but nothing happened, her body didn't jerk to the side even though the force of the blow cracked the street we were on and shattered the glass on the other buildings.

' _Oh, that's just bullshit!'_ As I backpedaled her claw just raked my shoulder. Somehow it sliced through my armor, before I got away. My back was now to the wall where Jesmon had so rudely entered. It was remarkably—

Something exploded outward and I spun around, Hinukamuy emerging from my back to keep an eye on Siberian. One of Crawler's heads was trying to devour my student, whose tail blade was shoved through the roof of Crawler's other head pinning the mouth shut, while he crashed onto the street. Crawler was huge, to my seven foot form, I saw Rene and Por attack the creature, only for their blades to not slice through the black plating that had sprung on the creature. _'Where's Atho?'_

Still I would much rather fight Crawler, than Mrs. "I-Won't-Be-Turned-into-Paste-Due-to-an-Alien-Shard-Making-Me-Bullshit."

"Having a good time, Brat?" I needled my Student as he disconnected himself from the beast, cutting off three of its six legs, before jumping to my side.

"Not now, Master. He has Ulforce's regeneration, any suggestions?" His tone was completely serious, and his body tense. I saw the beast make a rumbling sound, which was soon joined by the Siberian's.

"I must admit," the voice that came from the beast almost reached Examon's rumbling voice while in digital form. "It has been a long time since someone has so brazenly attacked me and managed to injure me."

"By the way, Brat," I said tuning out the intimidation attempt and channeling a complete lack of regard for the situation. "Let's see here: Shattered, Broken Bones, Jack Splat, Cut Strings, Burnsmear, and you two in front of us… That makes seven and I think you were looking for one more, _so where's number eight_?" I turned to my Idiot Student. "Brat, have _you_ seen our eighth little murder hobo yet?"

"No." He sent me a curious look, and I shrugged my shoulders. Hinukamuy saw the Siberian making circling motions which Crawler started doing, We'd kill eight and nine later.

"So, Brat, Mrs. Nudity over here is a special snowflake that doesn't have the manners to turn into paste when she gets hit by me and Hinukamuy. She also has pierced through everything I've thrown at her, so super strength and some type of invincibility trick."

"Master, why are you telling me this?" his eyes were still focused on the beast. "'Cause she's your problem now, Brat. I've already fought my fair share of crazy bitches, it's your turn to step up," I said already rushing the regenerator.

"You can't be serious, Master!" he shouted after me.

"Think of it as a Lesson!" I called back over my shoulder as I grabbed Crawler and chucked him outside the city limit before following. Crawler probably wouldn't die from a fall of that height afterall. Dangerous Criminal to pursue and all that.

Jesmon P.O.V

In hindsight, I may have deserved that. Still, Atho had picked up the girl and was carrying her to safety. l spun around on one blade, pivoting through the concrete and faced the Siberian. I dwarfed her with my nine foot form, but considering the blow master had just taken I might as well attack her in a smaller form.

I skated down the ruined street, arm blades extended out towards her. She met my charge, exploding off the pavement, flying towards me. I turned my charge into a roll, and brought my tale blade downward at the last second. She wasn't expecting it, but instead of bouncing off like I had expected the blade to the blade hit her head, and she disappeared…

What? I had Rene and Por going through the other streets to see if she was making a run for it. Rene sent me an alert, and I spun around arm blade, snapping up to intercept another lunge made by the Siberian. Alright, she most definitely had _not_ been there two seconds ago. The blade successfully diverted the arm past my head, still that wasn't right. I jumped back, before ascending to a roof top, and jumping from building to building away from the city limits, only for her not to take the bait, and start moving towards the residential areas. _**No!**_ I wasn't going to let anyone else be killed by this monster, Exploding off a side of a building in her direction I decided to channel something from my Ultimate Form. **"Dynamic Entry!** You monster!" both of my leg blades along with my tail blade hit her, and made some progress before she disappeared again.

My blades kept on moving forward, and I skated over the pavement again as she materialized behind me. This time we both seemed to expect it as she reappeared with a claw raised this time only to meet my twin parry. My hand blades caught a truly powerful blow that rippled through my body and sent me through another building before crashing onto a very busy street.

I regained my balance, arm blade driving into the sidewalk, and flipping me over cars to the other side of the street, where pedestrians were already scattering. I used Rene and Por to start pushing cars out of the way regardless of the civilians inside them. It was better for them to be jostled now then to die in the fighting. I saw the Siberian land on the other side of the sidewalk, she turned her head to the side, watching a man run away, my "people in trouble" sense quietly humming as always in situations like these gave a sharp buzz alerting me to her intentions.

She was going to attack the civilians. Her first target, a middle-aged man behind her. Atho materialized, done with delivering the girl, and shot after the man going under his legs and pushing him upwards carrying him to safety, just as the Siberian landed where the man was a moment ago. I heard her snarl, and I felt grim satisfaction fill me along with the usual joy I felt in saving someone, but this would keep happening unless I killed her soon. Rene and Por went after her, their assault renewed she didn't even blink at them. When she swept her hand through Rene and he disappeared… _'Wait a minute!'_ I needed to confirm something, and my leg blades sent me fliting towards my target as I prepared to unleash a combo that had given Craniumon trouble. I watched her dispatch Por and I only needed one more thing to confirm my theory.

" **Tekken Seibai"**

I had been described as a "hurricane of blades" when I used my special moves, in all honesty, it was just utilizing all my blades to deliver a multitude of blows in quick succession in an increasingly chaotic pattern. I had to give Siberian her due. She blocked the first one hundred slashes, body standing unmoving, as the force I used carved gashes through the street, but once the next fifty hit, her body disappeared, _exactly_ like Rene and Por. So, she was a projection. That simplified things, but exacerbated my problem. There weren't too many Digimon that could really utilize projections. Magically inclined Digimon aside, the only ones I could think of were myself, Master, and Lucemon Larva, who created an invulnerable shadow dragon more powerful than most Mega.

Still from what I remembered of parahuman profiles, projections weren't like the Siberian usually, and their makers were forced to maintain a close range to the "projectee." But then again, exceptions existed and they had been killed.

I had to find the projector, and hopefully soon, there was still that one member of the Nine we hadn't identified running around, and that Stasis pod. Already Atho, Por, and Rene were scouring the city, searching for the feeling of the Abomination. Three blocks away PRT vans coming toward the area along with two other heroes. Not them, I jumped back as the Siberian manifested again, above me, creating another crater on the ground.

I checked Rene's viewpoint, as I renewed my assault against the Siberian Projection, nothing important, and I sent him over to the East Side. And now I needed to draw the Siberian away from here.

"You know," I started, "our files didn't say that much about you. However, one thing that did stand out from survivors report was how much you cared for Bonesaw." I trailed off as I skated backwards, and jumped to the roof of a building. "Do you feel anything knowing that her head is about three feet away from her body, surrounded by her last and final work? Or can you even feel anything, at all?"

The roar she released, and the crater she created careening towards me suggested she, or rather whomever was projecting her, did.

Her claws smashed against my blades, batting them to the side and cut the side of my face. The gash was letting out a stream of data and that would be painful in the morning. Her second attack sent me careening towards a high-rise. I was able to regain my footing, and quickly made my way up to the roof of the building, I could see her form leaping after me. I had all three of my projections increase their search speed. My range was about the radius of a big city, I could only hope that the Siberian's was smaller.

I reviewed all of their visions.

Por, still nothing.

Rene, cat in a tree. I should probably deal with that, just in case the fight moves in this direction.

Atho; a blistering search through streets nothing, nothing, and there it was! The abominations taint! It was in a white van, Atho couldn't see through the van, but considering it was stationary and in an alleyway, I made my decision. Atho tore through the van spearing an inert man, and then lunging upward, and just as the Siberian's claws were about to reach my face, she disappeared. I waited a moment, but when she didn't reappear, I let loose a sigh of relief. _'And then there were two_. _'_

Gankoomon P.O.V present time

I looked at the beast in front of me with a growing sense of disappointment. _'_ _ **This**_ _is Crawler? The parahuman who regenerates in nanoseconds, and is supposed to be a serious threat in this world? While I can see how the regen is annoying, I mean Ulforce uses it to terrifying effect, he's also got more going for him. Super speed, Mega level power, and a terrifying grasp of tactics when, you know, he chooses to use his head. This guy in front of me... not so much.'_

"Hit me with your best shot!" The beast snarled he had somehow grown another head, giving the appearance of a beast with three heads six legs, and tentacles growing out of him. For others, it might actually have been scary. For me, it just meant that I had to listen to dumbass _in stereo_.

"My best shot is reserved for people who can actually put up a fight," I drawled, easily sidestepping his telegraphed lunge and then grabbing onto a tentacle and using it to throw him through several trees before his body landed in the creek. Maybe it'd be more fair if I had to read a book or something. I ambled to the edge of the creek waiting for him to surface... I didn't have to wait long.

He burst out of the water. " _Fight me seriously, damn you!"_ he yelled. Hm, points for tenacity, but reduction for not knowing when he was outmatched. Or learning from his mistakes. That put him at negative three thousand forty-two. As he sailed towards me again, this time I just squatted down, I can't believe I actually had gotten excited over this. Well, that's what five months of pretty much sitting on your ass will do to you, I guess.

 _'Like you don't sit on your ass for months on end normally?'_

I ignored the little annoying voice in my head that sounded like my Idiot Student. Unfortunately, I still had to give this farce nominal attention, and well... It wouldn't do to look crazy during our debut. Besides, he was used to it.

 _'Master is so cruel,'_ the voice sulked, making me smile for a moment, I could imagine the Brat curling up in a corner somewhere. Then I had to turn my attention back to reality.

"Okay, let's make a couple things clear," I stated, evading his wild flailing, and hauled myself onto an overhanging tree branch to avoid his poison acid. Okay, that might actually have been impressive if he could use it tactically. As it was, just more wasted potential.

"One, the fact that I'm able to talk to you during this "fight" shows how much of a massive fuck up you are. Were it my Idiot Student, I would actually be breaking a sweat." I punctuated this by kicking off and destroying the tree branch, and impacting the ground so hard a shock-wave blew Crawler back.

"Two." I burst forward creating another crater in the ground and used Hinukamuy to slice off all six of his legs. "A fight with me has to have an opponent who doesn't telegraph his moves like a drunk."

I picked him up by one of his heads before crushing it. Maybe it would make this more bearable. "Three, my opponent actually has to earn his strength with skill rather than just relying on some bullshit power to get by. Even without using our greatest assets, there are few who can match the might of even the weakest of the Royal Knights. You on the other hand..." throwing away the regenerator and letting him fall on the other side of the creek, "If you lost your power to regenerate, what would you be? A sad fool who would die within the first two seconds in a real fight."

I watched as his body began to regenerate again. Now, he was just annoying me. He charged again. Was he really that insane? Perhaps one more lesson would be in order. A taste of what he had been after. A sliver of my true strength.

 **"Tekken Seisai"**

I tore his body apart with hundreds of blows. just as he reformed—

" **Jishin! Kaminari! Kaji! Oyaji!** "

Hinukamuy's fist impacted him. His body rippling before it exploded. The shockwave created by the event uprooting some of the nearby trees.

"Trust me when I say this isn't 'fight,'" I drawled, watching as he began to reform again. "No, this is just me using you as a punching bag."

 **Jesmon P.O.V Location SL9 warehouse time 9:00 AM**

' _Where was the last member?'_ I made sure to check the stasis pod, it was still inert, but I wasn't picking up any new taints of the Abomination. I closed my eyes only to open them in shock when the buzzing in my head from my danger sense erupted. I tried to locate it, it only reacted like this when people I cared about were in serious trouble.

' _Master? No. Omnimon, not really. Gallantmon? Not anymore. Alphamon? Nope. One of the other Knights? They're fine. That only leaves Taylor?'_ The sound erupted into the back of my head, a repeating beat that demanded me to move. [color=transparent] **No Hope** [/color]

' _I've got to get to her, but I can't leave Master on a mission if it's not done!'_

' _He'd be fine though, right? I mean he took most of them and the one he worried about is gone. I could go..._

' _But that would be against the vow I made. I swore I'd be a Royal Knight. That I'd live out the ideal I'd had as a child._

' _No win, huh? Looks like becoming a Mega didn't change all that much after all.'_

I shook my head with a sad smile, I was going to help Master, and then save Taylor, and I was never going to do a lot better next time. This wasn't me, and Atho had found out why, I must have missed the Abominations Taint, due to the song rising in my head. I snarled, I had wasted precious time having an existential crisis thanks to this! Atho crashed below the floor, revealing a girl who had just enough time to realize how bad things were before she was dispatched. That left Crawler and the Stasis pod. I could see PRT vans coming towards the building. I was disappointed, the whole fight with Siberian had taken an hour, and just now they were responding to a building with two holes in its side, though I suppose they were preparing for a slugfest that ended before they got here. My danger sense started shrieking and I snarled, I needed to take care of Crawler now.

 **Gankoomon P.O.V**

' _I should have taken Mrs. Nudity.'_ The fight had been going well, Crawler _still_ couldn't fight worth shit, however he had gotten bigI realized as even in my twelve foot form he dwarfed me. I was standing on the water of the Mississippi river, looking up. _Really fucking big_. He looked like someone stupid had decided to splice Dagomon and GranDracmon data together and instead of power got full ugly. The monstrosity had multiple heads with huge tongues rolled out of its mouths. Eyeballs the size of me looked down at me.

" **AM I STILL A JOKE? THIS HAS BEEN THE BEST FIGHT OF MY LIFE!"**

"Careful," I shouted up at him, "The brain cells you just killed have been the closest thing to damage you've done to me this entire fight! And to answer the question, Yeah, _only now_ the punchline is the difference between your shoe size and your IQ."

"███████████"

 _Whelp, there goes my hearing. I_ _ **better**_ _be able to get shitfaced after this!'_

I dodged backwards, a giant tentacle with multiple barbs rising out of the Mississippi to spear me, Shit I couldn't kill this thing, and there was a human barge in our battlefield, that if anything from human movies had taught me was probably going to get wrecked. _'Turn around, you morons, don't you see the Kaiju of Stupid? Speaking of which, isn't Davy supposed to be here? doesn't he have the insta win button or was that? "Alphamon's girlfriend" or something? ...Who the fuck cares? I'm not getting hit by that.'_

I jumped upwards to avoid the acid stream that boiled the river, probably killing some fish in the process, I used Hinukamuy to propel me into the creature's eye, and I went into and through it's head.

' _I'm done. Fuck today, my hair got cut, instead of having a real fight I've been playing whack a mole with somebody with an IQ of negative five, and I now smell like shit. There's no way this can get any worse.'_

" _ **MASTER, What did you do?!"**_ _'I probably asked for that, but Yggdrasil dammit.'_

"Not now, Brat! Kinda busy here! You take care of the nudist and Murder Hobo number 8 yet?"

"They're dead, and we need to kill him quickly."

"Holy shit you're genius! here let's call Duftmon." I maneuvered through the air to avoid multiple tentacle swings. "And tell him that he's going to be replaced, by CAPTAIN FUCKING OBVIOUS. I've been at this for an hour, and unless I want to kill our Lord, I'm not busting out Burst mode, so shut the fuck up, and help me! Or I swear to Yggdrasil, when the Olympus Twelve and the Demon Lords spawn; I'm going to dump you in a room with Lilithmon, Venusmon, and Junomon; tell them you called them flat chested and lock you in it." That seemed to get him into gear.

Jesmon P.O.V Thirty minutes later

My danger sense was still screaming at me, and this thing still wasn't dead.

"Brat I've come up with a plan!" Master shouted, dancing out of the way of a stream of acid. We were at our absolute largest forms, easily rivaling the height of skyscrapers.

"What is it?" I shouted, using my tail blade to meet the tentacle that fifteen minutes ago, I wouldn't have met any resistance slicing through it now, it was like trying to destroy Craniumon's _Avalon_.

"Just follow my lead!" I grit my teeth, the danger sense was ever present, the river banks had suffered heavy damage, and he was not going down. But, I trusted him. I followed my Master's lead, rushing towards the creature Atho, Por, and Rene following me. I saw my Master push his digisoul into his hands along with Hinukamuy doing the same as Master the two pulsing with power. Their hands latched into the beast's flesh, and starting lifted upward. I did the same, arm blades slicing through the flesh with Atho, Rene, and Por joining in the effort. He started lifting upwards, and I joined him in raising the creature. We all started flying up. It wasn't until we had him halfway out of the river that Crawler even realized something was going on. That wasn't all though, I felt a digisoul pulse. I didn't understand it, but if master wanted to show off who was I to judge.

"Heave!" He shouted at me.

"Ho!" I shouted back at him, and then the six of us launched Crawler skyward with all of our strength. I watched as he continued upwards, both of us sliding to a much more managable size I drifted closer to Master. "Is that going to take care of him?" I asked him, and he put a hand on my shoulder.

"Calm down, Brat. Just sit back and watch the show." I threw off his shoulder we've been fighting this thing for an hour, and he still isn't dead, _'Taylor's still in trouble! I need to go help her!'_ I was cut off when I watched something detonate against Crawler, the resulting explosion of light blinding me and letting me know that Examon had just shot Crawler. Still it was dead, Master could take care of the rest.

"And _that_ is how I had it covered." I barely heard it. I was already sprinting away.

 _ **Jesmon P.O.V 5:00 PM Location Brockton Bay**_

' _Four hours, she had been stuck in there for four hours.'_

My best friend was so still, her freckled face and black hair laying on the hospital bed. I flinched as a watched her body expand and contract with every breath. While I was out fulfilling my duties as a Royal Knight, I had failed my duties to her. She was found in a locker dirty tampons and other unmentionable things falling out as the janitor had pulled her out of there. That hadn't been the worst of it though. The most damning sign of my failure was The Abomination's presence surrounding my best friend. I felt the entire world jeering at me.

' _Who would do this? Who would dare touch her? It couldn't have been Jackson and his group, nor could it have been Tamaki. No, they would realize what I would have done to them had they touched her, so that only leaves...'_

They would pay. Atho, Rene, and Por would find them and enact Justice against what the _Terrible Trio_ as Taylor called them had done to her.

Standing up I stepped outside and found her doctor. I gave him my contact information in case Taylor was waking up, he only looked at me sadly. That made me even more furious. I stomped down the stairs, my agitated presence causing the humans to instinctively get out of my way. Stepping outside, the cold air of January hit me. I stalked down dark the streets, glancing into alleys to see if they were abandoned. I found one and slipped into it, as soon as I was out of line of sight my foot changed into a blade, and where once there had been Shawn Kim now stood Jesmon, the Royal Knight— _still_ angry as Hell. I manifested Atho, Por, and Rene they would find Madison, Emma, and Sophia, and they would punish them. I nodded and just as they began to shoot off—

My face was in the ground, my body carving a trench into the concrete. I _knew_ this digisoul. And I was in no mood.

"Master, let me go!" I shouted angrily, tail blade snapping up only for him to grab it.

"Now why would I do that?" he drawled, although from what Por could see he was looking at me seriously. _'Now, if only he could put that attention where it mattered...'_

"They hurt Taylor!" Atho, Por, and Rene reacted to my rage, shooting off to seek their targets, only for Hinukaymon to rise up and grab two of them in his hands and close his jaws around Rene.

"Who?" He asked, his voice bereft its usual sarcasm. _'Damn it, Old Man! You finally get serious for once in your life and it's only when you stop me from helping my friend?!'_

"Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess, and Madison Clements. They shoved her in a locker with filth and left her to die," I ground out through gnashing teeth.

"And your idea of Justice is to go out and kill three human teenager? I thought better of you Jesmon." There wasn't even Anger in his voice. Just Pity, and it stung all the worse for it.

"I promised I would protect her, and I failed her. My honor has been slighted," I shouted while renewing my struggles to escape my master. _'Come on. Just loosen your grip a bit, you Old Fart!'_

He actually squeezed harder. "Don't feed me that crap, Idiot Student. You've never given a damn about your own pride. This is merely vengeance fueled rage. They hurt your friend and so you need to hurt them back. You know, back home I may have even supported such an action. However, this isn't home and killing three humans, as terrible as their actions are, would ruin what we've been working towards... Or have you forgotten Operation Lifprasir?"

At this my body slackened. "She Triggered, Master," I muttered into the dirt. "While we were out killing those monsters, they shoved her in a locker and the Abomination cursed her with it's mark. She was alone, and scared, and..." the next phrase hung in the air without being spoken. I couldn't say it. The thing that truly got to me. What all Jesmon swore to prevent upon their evolution. And here I couldn't even do it for my best friend, some Knight I was.

Instead I said, "...And those three _things_ will go on with their lives without any reprisal if I don't do something!"

After a time, Master finally removed his foot from my face, I could briefly see his eyes take on a new light before they were hidden again.

"While, yes their actions will go unpunished for now, you've forgotten that you're not in this alone. And our brothers have been removing the threats that the humans haven't been able to touch since the Abomination appeared. Trust me justice will be served, and those girls will be punished. Or do you really think so little of us that we can't handle three teenage humans-only one of which has powers?" he asked with a smile. He offered me his hand. "Now come on, you can stay out of school for as long as Taylor's in the hospital."

"Thank you, Master." I said honestly touched.

"Don't look too hard into this, Brat. I'm still pissed at you for leaving me behind," he said, though I knew he didn't really mean it. The words didn't have their usual kick. Although everything wasn't alright now, he was right. Justice would be served... _properly_.

Gankoomon P.O.V 1:00 AM Location: Royal Knight Apartment complex

 _'Drasil, nothing can be simple can it?'_ I had finally gotten Jesmon to leave the hospital, he wasn't considered her family so he couldn't spend the night. And with his distress, that meant it was my job to play the responsible one, which I hated being. And here I thought when he finally achieved Mega he would get out of my hair. The Brat was turning it grey prematurely.

 _"Ah, well, I think you, um, did a really nice ,erm, thing,_ " Blanc stuttered from behind me. Thankfully, there was _something_ normal today.

"It doesn't matter if I did a nice thing. The Brat's gonna think it's his fault. He's always been like..." I turned around to face her, only to see nothing was there. I fucking hated this place, if today was so bad I couldn't tell the memory echoes from real sounds, the day was a total wash. I closed my eyes and felt for the Brat's Digisoul. It was there, quiet and subdued, he was sleeping. Good, I wouldn't have to pin him down again in case he tried to do something stupid. I went over to the fridge, opened it and pulled out a beer. Unfortunately, I couldn't get shit-faced, not with the Brat as he was now. But that didn't mean I had to deal with this shit stone-cold sober. I popped the cap, and raised the bottle to my mouth. However, just before I could partake of the watery piss cousin of Bachusmon's Ambrosia, the intercom to buzzed. Cursing, my eyes snapped to the clock: 1:00 A.M. _'Who in the Dark Zone could it be at this hour? I swear if it's some type of criminal or druggy, rules be damned, I_ _ **will**_ _use Himukamuy to punch the stupid out of them!_ "

I walked up to the intercom receiver. "Who is it?" I snapped.

"It's me... Amy? I was wondering if I could stay here for the night." a small voice replied back, and I knew that tone of voice. It was the one Blanc used when she was sad, so that meant... _'Yggdrasil dammit! Why can't this day be over?'_

"Sure, I'll be down in a moment." My voice drained of all anger. I ignored any of her protests as might as well meet her. God knows Magnamon might _actually_ kill me if I didn't help his "daughter."

 _"Gee, Ganky, that reminds me of someone who threatened Omnimon under the threat of death if something happened to Huckmon when he had to go on a mission."_ Noir's voice chirped, and I repressed the urge to snap back, I was already wimpy enough, no need to publicly acknowledge my delusions.

I opened my door, went down a flight of stairs, and came face to face with Amy, she was a wreck, red-rimmed eyes, with dark bags under her eyes, she was in a pair of white sweats, that looked entirely to big on her, and a blue hoodie. She looked different from the girl we had over for dinner, In her hands she had a small bag, still I could analyze this later, she needed to get in.

"Come in kid, it's literally freezing out there." I said swinging the front door open. Jerking my thumb at one of the apartment doors I continued, "Magnus's room is next to the Brat and my room, there's a diner a couple blocks down if you want breakfast. Though, considering I didn't get any calls ordering me to prepare a room, I assume Magnus doesn't know about this?" I finished sardonically.

At this she wilted, and I could imagine the disappointment from the Brat. "He doesn't. I can't talk to him right now, just..."

"That's all I cared about." _I am_ _ **not**_ _dealing with another angsting teenager! I already dealt with one too many today!'_ I turned around and started walking towards my apartment, I was about to reach the stairs before I heard the sound of footsteps hesitantly following. _'Good._ _Have fun, Magnamon! Let's see how much_ _ **you**_ _like angsty teens.'_ I walked up the stairs to the second floor, entered the hallway, and walked to Magnus's door.

"You have the key, don't you?" I looked at Amy who nodded at me, and reached into her pocket pulled it out, and put it into the door. She opened, and then turned to me.

"Thank you, Mr. Kim." She said, and for a moment Blanc image overlapped with her's. _'Dammit! Mind, stop sabotaging me!'_

"Anytime brat, Magnus gave you that key for you to use it."

"I know it's just... Today hasn't been that good." _'Ain't that the truth? Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go babysit my Idiot Student._ _ **And**_ _plan out how to break the news to Magnamon that you came here crying.'_

That's what I _wanted_ to say. Oh, how I wanted to. Instead, "Good night, Amy," is all I said, watching as the door closed. God, I was getting old. I checked the Brat's digisoul again, still asleep… Well, that's one thing at least.

End 3.3: Mothmon's Wings Flap, Leviamons Tsunamis Crash

Authors Note: So this ends, the first half of Arc three, and here comes the next part: Fallout. To clarify what Magnamon, Sleipmon, and Omnimon did is this. Magnamon took down Blasto, with little fanfare, he got a phone call from Amy which gave her the strength to go up to Brandish, and say I'm taking a break from healing, suffice to say, this didn't end well and Vicky jumped in and yeah... It was not a good night for Amy, and Gankoomon is going to have the shittiest day.

Sleipmon and Omnimons debut were kinda lackluster in comparison. Sleipmon saved some people, got in a fight with Two Yang Ban members, killed them, and then contacted a person on Duftmons list. Omnimon just solved crimes all day in New York.

Now Next time on the Worm Protocol: PHO reacts/Spacebattle does since, I'm going to be sending out a PM for various things you'd post about the Royal Knights, that have to be not meta, and serious. Also after this arc, we will get to the promised lands of singular P.O.V.! Also thank you AbZh101, for helping me type this monster of a chapter. Also please review.


	21. Interlude 3a

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**Topic: Royal Knights**

 **In: Boards** **Capes** **Royal Knights**

 **FlyingLeopard** (Original Poster)

Posted on January 4, 2011:

The Royal Knights are group of thirteen Capes that made their debut on Jan 3rd 2011. There first "official" action was to create there own room and post a video that showed the "annihilation" of Ellisburg, six hours later more posts were posted on the board claiming other achievements. This morning at 8:00 A.M the PRT released a statement stating that the actions of at least eleven of these capes are true. Please, be respectful when you post.

 **(Showing Page 1 of 100)**

 **CrazyMind** (Cape Groupie)

Replied on January 4, 2011:

Come on dude that video's a fake...HOLY SHIT, IT'S REAL. Okay, so I've run the numbers, and holy shit that thing is carrying WMDs in space ...Okay well, does anybody have a bunker because I am freaking the fuck out?

 **SecretlyYourGod**

Replied on January 4, 2011:

Crazy Mind: You think that's bad? Mont Royal is currently on fucking fire! Women are killing themselves en'masse, and the ones that aren't are torching the city. The knight in black is here in the city trying everything he can, along with his own personal dragon. No not the hero, Dragon. His own personal dragon, because the world wasn't screwed up enough in the first place.

Replied on January 4, 2011:

CrazyMind: Hey you should be saying BOOYAH. I mean anytime a Parahuman trashes the place this dragon nukes 'em, and any other losers comparing this guy as the fourth Endbringer, piss off. This guy just nuked Ellisburg, and took care of Nilbog when the PRT and the rest of the world let him have his "kingdom"

 **This post has been marked as inflammatory. please don't insult your fellow posters over their personal fears.**

 **LordOfDarkmoore**

Replied on January 4, 2011:

Okay when I first saw the news report I flipped out, but come on guys this Alphamon had enough of Heartbreakers crap and took care of him, and while the current situation is bad right now, Heartbreaker wasn't going to go away. My only complaint was that Alphamon didn't go further. Now on the other hand... _holy shit there is a dragon with fucking space nukes flying in orbit_ , the only consolation is he took care of Nilbog. The final and greatest thing these guys have done has to be Slaughtering the SH9.

 **SecretlyYourGod**

Replied on January 4, 2011:

LordofDarkmoore: Easy for you to say. Your cousin's house and the city you live in, isn't in flames, and sure I knew he wasn't gonna be taken in easily, but there had to have been a better way than this.

 **SilverSipper**

Replied on January 4, 2011:

Dragon then mixed with nuke then dipped in awesome if he ever goes groundside i am asking for an autograph. And a possible picture...In fact I want autographs all of them this is once in a life time experience i will find each and every last one of them and ask for their signatures!

 **CrazyMind** (Cape Groupie)

Replied on January 4, 2011:

SilverSipper: There is a dragon carrying orbital nukes and your first reaction is "I want this guy's autograph?"...What the hell, man? Am I the only sane person here? What is the PRT gonna do about this guy?

 **Boast1**

Replied on January 4, 2011:

Ok, so I did a bit of looking around and as far as I can tell this was somesort of focused attack on several major villan powers worldwide. While I did notice a strong focus on worldwide threats, did anyone else notice how many of these events were happening in America or is it just me? I mean, first we have what looks like a dragon dropping on Ellisburg (which apparently isn't a hoax), then reports start coming in about an honest to god _monster battle_ going down, complete with giants duking it out in the middle of a city, and then to top it all off, I've been finding rumors about the Ash Beast going poof somewhere in Egypt.

I'm not completely sure what happened but _something[?I] went down and I'm not sure it's friendly. Seeing so many people on this forum jumping for joy I almost feel guilty saying this, but can we honestly trust that whoever is behind these attacks? How can we be sure it's the good guys who are behind this? I've seen too many so called 'heroes' suddenly turn around and attack people in the streets to not be wary._

 _Though personally, I hope that whatever took out Ellisburg drops in on the Simurgh, literally (Payback B**ch!)._

 __ _ **DragonFanBoy**_ __

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _Holy... I just caught_ _ **this**_ _on tape... Some cape fighting the Nine._

 _What kind of freaking power has that one, each time he hit Siberian, she just vanished._

 _Until she just didn't appear anymore. Do you think she's dead?_

 __ _ **CapeAnalyzer**_ _(Power Guru)_

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _DragonFanBoy: Do you have a better quality video? Because that looks like Hookwolf from Brockton Bay._

 __ _ **Mgnuh1**_ __

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _Orbital. Dragon. Drop. What the Shit?_

 __ __ _(The Guy In The Know)_

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _CapeAnalyzer: Okay that was definitely not Hookwolf. Unless Hookwolf is a dragon walking on literal blades, plus I was on the barge that almost got caught up in the fight with Crawler… Yeah these guys are something else. They both had projections except I think "Gankoomon" was the one in the black body suit, and had the tiger-dragon thing._

 __ _ **CapeAnalyzer**_ _(Power Guru)_

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _: I was commenting on the video quality. Tape of a Cape fight is nice, but it helps when it isn't trying to give the viewer motion sickness. And it was real blurry besides._

 __ _ **Grateful**_ __

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _Look I don't really usually use all this technology stuff, but "Jesmon" you saved my granddaughter from those pieces of crap, and while she's still shaken and will be for a long time, thank you._

 __ __ __

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _Okay I may have been out of line, but the last thing I have to say has to do with "Omnimon" "Crusadermon". your suit is bullshit, and Crusadermon sure you've taken down one warlord but what about the rest of the warlords?_

 __ _ **Coldsteel**_ __

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _SilverSipper: Agreed, although I wonder if the one in pink is male or female?_

 __ _ **Granddaddyiac**_ __

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _You have to ask? What guy goes around in hot pink armor carrying roses?_

 __ _ **Ulforce**_ _(Verified Cape) (Royal Knight)_

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _SilverSipper: I'm going to fucking die, and BTW for shame nobody is commenting on the wrapping up of nazis and gifting them to the police chief it's right_ _ **here.**_ _Also as none of my brothers have commented just wanted to let everybody know Examon totes isn't gonna start taking out anymore targets… Without clearance._

 __ _ **Ihaveseenitall**_ _(Verified PRT Agent)_

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _Ulforce: I...what the fuck. As it turned out I have not seen it all, and you have to be the worst present giver of all time._

 __ _ **Omnimon**_ _(Verified Cape) (Royal Knight)_

 _Replied on January 4, 2011:_

 _Ulforce: Do your job properly for once! For sake!_

 __

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	22. Interlude 3b

Interlude 3 Director Costa Brown: January 5 2011 11:45

' _No, you can't call Contessa despite how bad you want to,'_ I growled to myself. This whole debacle was a trainwreck. The meeting room of the LA Protectorate found the leaders the other leaders faces lining the walls, the one currently causing the veins on my head to throb uncontrolably? Director Tagg.

"Director Brown, are you listening?" Piggot asked. Internally, I almost pitied her. Two aliens in one city was not going to be good for her, and that was disregarding the bags under her eyes.

"I am," I replied long practice allowing me to keep my annoyance out of my voice. "I was simply reviewing the files we've had on the "Knights." Do we have anything on this Alphamon?" I doubted it would be anything that Number Man hadn't already found, but sometimes I could be pleasantly surprised.

Dragon jumped in at this, she had been called here as she had been working with one of the aliens closely. "Alphamon, after answering our questions returned to the city proper, and after Heartbreakers capture was announced and the fallout began he hasn't stopped. As of now he's at 56 hours of activity without rest."

"Great! so on top of being a Blaster, and a Brute he apparently can keep on going for long periods of time," Director Wikins chimed in. His weary tone completely contrasting his goofy smile. "Though, am I reading this report right? He drank a _barrel_ of steaming hot coffee? Maybe he's just working off the caffeine." I envied him. Unlike Piggot or any other leader in a destitute area he would likely never have to deal with the aliens.

"I think you're all ignoring the bigger problem. Which is the dragon carrying _nukes_ in space." Oh there was my migraine again, _'must resist urge to call Contessa.'_

"I am well aware, Tagg," I growled. "But unless you have an instant solution, outside of the contact we've already made with Toy-Box and other countries, I'd like to focus on the knights we _can_ hit."

' _We should have focused on the one who hadn't transformed. The tall red-headed asian man was blown off in our analysis of the revealed aliens, and in doing so they kept their trump card hidden. Still, survival of human race first, urge to kill aliens later.'_

"Director Piggot" I started again. "What can you tell me about Jesmon and Gankoomon?"

I watched as her jaw clenched at the latter's name. "Jesmon, for all intents and purposes is the more professional of the duo. I presume him to be the one of the upper tier members with how he handles his _cohort._ He, like all the other knights, seem to breaking records with his projections, which he called Rene and Por. Before and after their visit to the oil rig, the two have been going through the city taking out members of gangs. One thing I've noted, is that these knights are _trained_. Despite _literally_ having blades for lower legs, Jesmon was able to safely neutralize multiple gang members without dismemberment, and effectively coordinated with some of the Wards on a raid of a slave auction being held by the Merchants.

"Gankoomon, on the other hand, is, quite frankly, _an asshole_. He's a Brute, who after going through our testing, smashed our strength gauging machine out of the rig. During combat trials he performed a mixture of hand-to-hand martial arts, Muy Thai and Jiu-Jitsu most prominent among them. He, like Jesmon, possesses a projection which takes the form of a tiger-dragon, and due to the similarities between the two I believe Gankoomon is a second-generation cape."

"But that seems to contradict what we've gotten from their video evidence," Wilkins pointed out.

"The behavior shown by the two in person was radically different. They dropped the "Master and Brat" nicknames during their visit to the oil rig, and while they were out in the city."

' _Oh, covering for your little friend are you?'_ Of course Cauldron knew about Taylor Hebert. Anything that could have been used against these Knights was noted and catalogued in case of emergency.

"Still what I'm worried about is what they did." Heathrow jumped in. " _Think about it_. The Gesselshaft is _gone_ , Heartbreaker along with the SH9, who have always evaded the full might of the PRT and Protectorate, are now "taken care of." Any outside ally that might be able to help against them if they go rogue is disappearing."

' _Getting Grey Boy in the Stasis Pod was, sadly, the only bonus of that day,'_ I mused, before another thought entered my head. ' _They killed Manton. This could be an issue, though I suppose it's unknown just how many people Manton could have "infected."'_ Still, Hero's killer being right under my nose the whole time grated, and the small part of me that hadn't been given up in pursuit of saving the world was glad.

"For now we will allow them the benefit of the doubt," I stated plainly. "The law does not allow us to attack those whom we have no actual evidence of wrongdoing. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be cautious. Is there any word yet on how the red one finally killed the Ash Beast?

"It's unknown, He or She entered the Ash Beast's area of effect, and for ten minutes there was little activity. Until a red wave engulfed through the cloud. Atmospheric readings show some strange... I don't know how to describe it. "Warping" is the best word I can think of, and the Ash Beast was gone."

"Have we been able to compare it to the effects of other spatial warpers like Vista?"

"Not related. The effects between the two are just too unlike, the best way I can put this it's like the area within the wave was… frayed. Like for a moment there was a miniature black hole only, instead of growing, it evaporated once the Ash Beast was gone."

' _This file_ _ **better**_ _be extensive.'_ I thought back to the file Contessa had received from Alphamon. I had been given a copy recently and in my frustration began flipping through it. I had just gotten to the first page describing beings that were on the upper tier of their race despite the names being She-Who-Connects-All, and He-Who-Gives-Trials. The abilities shown there were far more promising than what the Knights had taken out.

I was interrupted by phone ringing, the room falling silent. The tinker-tech phone would only ring if it were a high priority caller, and since the rest of Cauldron was busy with the fallout, Legend right now was turning the public's favor towards the knights and the PRT. Along with Duftmon coordinating with Number Man, I had an inkling to who it was.

I flipped open the phone, tapped the call button...

"Mr. President, what can I do for you today?"

"A Parlament meeting just happened to get turned into a meeting of the United Nations. And someone declared open floor for those who physically attend. I want every parahuman you can have be there."

"I assume the knights will also be there?"

"It's about these 'Knights,'" came the soft reply. "The world is changing. People can't guess what it will look like tomorrow. They're scared. So I want them to know that no matter what happens their heroes will be there."

A UN meeting about a new group of Parahumans… It happened more than I liked to remember, many times getting nowhere as politicians tried to determine military strategies. This one… Would likely prove no different.

"Of course Mr. President, I'll let the other Heads of the PRT know. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No, know if you'll excuse me I have to go talk with my advisors." He disconnected after that.

"That was just our President in two weeks from today there will be a UN meeting about the "Royal Knights" as a whole and most likely "Examon" in particular. I want us to have a strong showing there, so take what members you can and have them there.

"Now I want each of you to have a press-conference, do _not_ villainize the Knights." I glared at Heathrow until he reluctantly nodded. "We are _not_ going to anger beings who right now have a member carrying orbital nukes without just cause. Piggot, I would appreciate if you sent me weekly reports on those two. The same goes for any other person in this room who has a knight in their city." After they nodded their heads, or agreed, I dismissed the meeting. I leaned back in my chair and let out a sigh.

' _It seems like you were right, Hero,'_ I thought to my deceased friend. _'There is no rest for the weary.'_

End Interlude 3b Rebecca Costa Brown:

Canon Omake: Brockton Bay Royal Knights Power Rating

The Royal Knights are a previously unknown group of capes who became active at the beginning of January 2011. With one exception they all seem to share either inhuman forms or operate suits make them appear non-human. Evidence collected by observing the Royal Knight Gallantmon (CB:Cutting in on someone else's name much? TM: Clockblocker, stop altering official reports. Kid Win, stop giving him the means to do so.) suggest that they are not suits. As satellite tracking has led to situations where they are simply not to have been found, this leads the group as a whole to have a Changer rating of 2 at minimum. Their civilian identities are unknown and as such we cannot ascertain if they maintain these powers in human shape. They have also each shown to possess a full Alexandria Package, though the individual numbers for the ratings in these categories vary. However they may simply be using Tinker tech. (ARM:Or be projections of one or more Parahumans. CB: Well, I won't be able to sleep tonight.)

Omnimon

Takes the role of Leader. Appearance: White armor with gauntlets resembling the heads of a dragon and wolf respectively. The Dragon Head has a sword. The wolf head has a cannon. _Does_ _in fact_ wear a Cape: White if seen from behind, red if seen from the front.

Brute: 9

Blaster: 7

Mover: (Speed, Flight) 8

Alphamon

Rarely seen. Appearance: Black Armor with gold trim. _Does in fact_ wear a cape: Royal Blue from the front, white from the back. Can summon melee weapon from unknown location.

Brute: 9

Master: 5

Mover: (Speed, Flight) 8

Gallantmon

Appearance: White armor with gold and red trim. Slight dragon motif. Can call lance and shield from unknown location or shifts armor to become them. _Does in fact_ wear a cape: Red. Silver hair?

Brute: 8

Blaster: 9

Mover: (Speed, Flight) 8

Shaker: 8 (We aren't sure _what_ happened at the end of the fight with the Ash Beast, but it wasn't something that the Ash Beast itself is normally capable of.)

Changer: 5

UlForceVeedramon

Makes terrible jokes. Appearance: Mix between a bipedal blue dragon and a knight covered in blue and white armor. Seems to use Tinker Tech. Sometimes uses wings to make people _think_ he wears a cape.

Brute: ?

Mover: (Speed, Flight) 11

Tinker?: 2

Magnamon

Professional. Appearance: Bipedal blue dragon in golden armor.

Brute: 8

Mover: (Speed, Flight) 8

Blaster: 9

Shaker: 5

Examon

Has not been met in person. Appearance: a giant red dragon with metallic wings and a similarly sized "lance."

Brute: 10

Mover: (Speed, Flight) 10

Effective Blaster: 10

Tinker: 4

Thinker: 5

Sleipmon

One of the more moderate members. Appearance: Giant Centaur with a horse's head and six legs covered in red armor. Uses Crossbow and Shield. Blue Hair in tufts.

Brute: 9

Mover: (Speed, Flight) 9

Blaster: 8 (Cryokinetic)

Shaker: 8

Crusadermon

Female knight, abrasive. Appearance: Wears pink armor with yellow ribbons which she can manipulate and a heavy shield on her right arm.

Brute: 8 (Nine on the attack)

Mover: (Flight, Speed) 6

Master: 2

Possible Tinker?

Dyanstmon

Crusadermon's partner. Appearance: Wears white and gold armor with a dragon motif. Has a pair of black wings.

Brute: 8

Mover: (Flight, Speed) 6

Blaster: 9

Duftmon

Dubbed, the Strategist. Appearance: Duftmon wears brown and white armor with a shaped like a leopard's head. He possesses long bleach blond hair. Also possesses a small set of wings. Wields a rapier.

Brute: 6

Mover: (Flight, Speed) 6

Blaster: 9

Thinker: ?

Crainiamon

Has been mentioned guarding something/one, not yet seen

Brute: ?

Mover: ?

Stranger?

Gankoomon

Very laid back, known for biting comments. Appearance: Gankoomon wears a black body suit, with a white trench coat draped over his shoulders serving as his Cape. Also wears impractical red Tabi sandals and a half visor over his eyes. Has red hair and beard. Calls his projection "Hinukamuy." (Possible reference to Hinukan, a Ryukyuan god of the Hearth.)

Brute: 9

Striker: 7

Mover: (Flight, Speed) 7

Master: 5

Jesmon

Appearance: Takes the shape of a white and gold metallic dragon with a giant crystal in his chest. Both gauntlets and tail have full swords at their edges, and lower legs seem to have been replaced by a pair of swords(?). _Does in fact_ wear a Cape—color: Red—which may double as a cloak, however has only been worn as a scarf. Has three projections, smaller than Gankoomon's. Calls them Rene and Por. (Reference to the Three Musketeers. Possible third projection?)

Brute: 7

Mover: 7

Master: 7


	23. Chapter 15: Right Here, Right Now

**3.4: Right Here, Right Now January 6th, 8:00 PM Brockton Bay**

 **Jesmon P.O.V**

Night in Brockton Bay was quiet. Allowing it to be both a stress reliever for Master and I, and a time to think.

"Oi, Brat, are you being moody again?"

' _ **Mostly**_ _quiet,_ ' I amended in my head. Master never shut up unless he was serious, and there were precious few things that could make him serious.

"I'm not being moody I just don't need to speak every second of the day, unlike you," I shot back, scaling up a building with my claws.

"If that's the case, then manifest Atho," he told me. I climbed onto the rooftop and stopped… Before I continued on again. Atho was busy, not that I was going to be telling him that.

"Really, not even just for a second, Brat?" He stopped trying to look pleading and started looking pleased with himself. "You are making this _far_ too easy for me. I mean come _on_ , you really think I don't know what you're having him do? I taught you how to make him for Drasil's sake, and I can sense him hovering around your _girlfriend's_ street."

I had given up on correcting him, it was just better not to acknowledge it.

"So what if he is?" I snarled, continuing over the rooftops. We had taken care of Mush yesterday, and hopefully that would draw the rest of the 'Merchants' out to "play."

"It's fine, Brat. I mean it's not like anything other than those Endbringers or the Abomination can stop us," I frowned, if I hadn't realized that the Siberian wasn't actually who we thought it was, the projection might very well have killed us. And while the SH9 were noted as S-Class, there was nothing about the person who made her to suggest power. Which meant that humans could and would get the drop on us if we weren't careful. But whenever I tried explaining that to the others they just looked at me funny. Even Gallantmon. "But if I have an opportunity to make fun of your... What do the humans call it?... "Bitchface," that's it! I will."

I was silent, I could feel the taints Abominations presence. Five of them to be exact, and was that… I was not going to have a good night.

Master picked up on it as well. "Brat be professional. Just think of working with Plutomon—"

"He, at least, is _reasonable_! And doesn't attack people who have done nothing wrong!" I hissed.

"—and your actions may decide the fate of the Digital World, so keep it cool," Master continued as if I hadn't said a thing.

I grit my teeth and I imagined Blanc and Noir and all the rookies that could—would—be. I opened my eyes again and I was Jesmon, a Royal Knight, guardian of the digital world. Seeing them having already noticed us, I turned towards them and leapt, skating across an intervening highrise, before I skidded onto the roof, and snapped a quick turn to kill most of my speed and manifested an aura of white digisoul around me. Total time since launch, 1.5 seconds.

They would come to me. I picked out Vista's aura, the young girl had the most combat experience in the group, and she was very helpful in the siege of the slave auction, but she wasn't the leader... Which i found odd, but humans were humans.

Following her was Gallant who I hadn't encountered last time, but he was an emotion sensor, making my calm demeanor all the more important to obtain. Kid Win was another member of the Wards here tonight. He was a Tinker, I hadn't really encountered advanced Machinery outside of HiAndromon and Machindramon lines so he would be interesting to watch. Huh… I _had_ been part of the Machine Empire family but never really learned about it. Weird.

Clockblocker was new, but anybody who could manipulate time would be a formidable enemy. Or a good ally.

The last one was… Enemy! ...A forced ally. I unclenched my teeth and took another calming breath. It wasn't like I hadn't already sensed her here. I could clean up Brockton Bay and take care of her properly.

"Well, well, somebody's excited... Vista." There was master defusing the situation, I merely observed them. They weren't tense with the exception of Sophia, who was tense, and had her hand on her crossbow… Try it.

"I'm not, Gankoomon, just ready for the job." She was oddly serious... Hmm.

"Ahh does Vista have a crush?" Clockblocker teased before he was cut off by Gallant elbowing him in the gut… Oh no, was he the Ulforce of the group? I couldn't deal with another Reindeer Incident.

"So are we going or not?" Sophia's curt tone cut in,

"Now now, we have all the time in the world, the other Merchants haven't taken the bait yet, and what did your director say something about reporting to a senior member when you encountered us?" Gankoomon asked her jovially.

I felt a grin slip onto my face. They were in a completely different room when that order had been given. However, digimon had great hearing. And, well... Rene, Por, and Hinukamuy didn't have to be visible or _tangible_ to overhear some interesting things.

I did let some amusement slip through, as they realized what us hearing that order implied. It wasn't just that order that we had heard.

"About that," I jumped back into the conversation. "Rene just picked up on one of Squealer's Va—"

"But those are invisible?" Kid Win cut in, and I sent him a confused look.

"Really? I can see them plain as day. Looks to be headed where you said you were holding Mush."

Gallant and the rest turned their attention to me well I assume they did, I guess their eyes couldn't make out the van's exhaust like I could...

"Anywho, you guys should probably call in beardface," Master said as if nothing was wrong. I sent him a look at the name, to which he shrugged as if to say he was coming up with a better one.

Sophia let out a chuff of amusement under her mask. I ignored it, and watched as Kid Win tapped his costume, and reported our presence and Squealer's break out attempt.

I tensed as I felt another carrier of the Abomination approach.

I turned my head, and saw Glory Girl approaching. She was a bit of an odd one. Maganmon was annoyed by her, but I hadn't met her so maybe it was just something personal with him? And there was the aura. Didn't she know how to reign it in?

"Gallant! You didn't!" Vista rounded on him only for him to put up his hands as if to appease her.

"I may have told her where we were patrolling, but these guys being here was a complete surprise." That was a lie. It was a bad one... And Taylor had told me repeatedly that I sucked at telling when people were lying.

"So what does the "mon" stand for?" Clockblocker asked with all the reverence of someone who wanted to draw as much attention as possible and possibly diffuse a volatile situation while probably coming across as an ass.

Oh it was so much worse. He was the _Gankoomon_ of the group. With Time powers. I had to suppress a shudder.

"It means 'monster,'" I replied offhand. And for some reason Master had his head in his hands. What did I do?

"So why the mon names, then? Did you guys really like the old Pokemon series?" Kid Win jumped in.

Master snarled. "No, _we didn't_. Trust me, kiddo. I was alive long before that series took off. At my confused expression he continued. "It was a video game series in Japan that focused on a world where various monsters could be captured by ten year olds in things called pokeballs "poke" was an abbreviation of pocket and "mon," monster. Hence the name "pokemon" or "Pocket monster." It had a following in the nineties. Suffice to say, Leviathan put an end to that franchise."

"Wow aren't you just a bundle of sunshine?" Glory Girl asked flying down, oblivious to the fight that had almost broken out.

"Oh you must be Panacea's sister," he replied as if this was the first time meeting her. And Yggdrasil dammit, Master! She tensed at that only for Gallant to go up to her and hug her.

"They're approaching the complex. Vista, can you keep up with me? Clockblocker, I want you to come with us." With that said, I started skating off the building before I launched off of it and passed by four rooftops before landing again.

I waited a couple of seconds for Vista to warp the space so she could catch up with Clockblocker in tow. We continued on like that with minimal stops on my part for about half a minute. "Clockblocker, Vista. Two other vans just entered onto the street. We'll be there in about three minutes."

"Not that I'm loving all this running and jumping, but what about the others?" Clockblocker said he wasn't out of breath which was good, but the question seemed a bit strange to me.

"You did ask your teammates to come with me, yes?"

Silence was my answer. "I can go on ahead," I offered. Although there help would have been appreciated, I could handle Squealer, and Skidmark, and the other Merchants.

"No!" The shout from Vista caught me off guard, before she coughed and continued. "I mean... It's okay if it's just us. The others will catch up later." She finished with a serious tone.

I wondered what was wrong with her, before pushing the matter to the side, Clockblocker's suit didn't convey enough to tell me his emotions, but considering his folded arms, and the way his head was turned towards Vista, he was either amused or annoyed.

I could focus on this later. "There are now five of Squealer's vans en route. Squealer, and Skidmark are in the lead van."

"Wait, how do you know that?" Clockblocker jumped into the conversation as we started moving across the rooftops again. Nights in Brockton Bay still had some light due to us being in a better part of town, and made it easier for them to make their jumps to keep up with me.

"One of my powers is to sense other Capes," I replied, If I could fool them into thinking it was just me with that power then my brothers could have some more room for espionage.

"You can _what_?" Clockblocker shouted. Vista's concentration broke mid spatial warp and left them on a roof two away from me. "Does that mean that if you met me when I was out of costume…"

"No, it's more like I can just tell if you have a power. Honestly, it's only used to help me sense enemies, I don't use it for personal gain. Great for keeping from getting jumped by the "Oh, you don't have to worry about me. _I_ don't have a superpower—Surprise! I lied," trick though."

"Has anybody told you, you're absolutely terrifying?" Clockblocker asked ignoring the look Vista sent him.

"I few. Mostly the ones who were trying to terrify other people into doing their dirty work before I showed up. Nine times out of ten the reaction me and my brothers get is, "Oh crap, it's them!""

"Oh... That's good to know," Clockblocker muttered as he vaulted over an air vent. "Speaking of which, what's Nuke Dragon like?"

I was about to answer when I realized something about our targets had changed. "I'll tell you _after_ we've bagged the Merchants on the next street over."

"Rene and Por will cripple the two vans in the front and back of the caravan, and I'll go after Squealer and Skidmark. Unless you guys want them? Also Clockblocker, your power, does it affect an object as a whole or can it affect components as well, like a tire instead of an entire truck?"

"First one, although it would be hard to do the whole truck, those things move fast and I only get one shot, you know?"

"'One shot' is all we'll _need_ ," I replied, altering the plan to take advantage of my current teammate's power set. Vista was a spatial warper. Though she had difficulty with space that contained living matter. If I could get her to see where the first truck was, she could warp part of it that didn't have anyone in it so that Clockblocker could connect. It would be a bit difficult with a moving reference frame, but I was sure she could do it. At that point, the truck would freeze from what I understood of his abilities. That would not only make an indestructible barrier for the rest of the convoy to smash into, it would cage Squealer and Skidmark. If they were wearing their seatbelts, they'd probably just get whiplash. If not, they'd likely be knocked out. But either way, they wouldn't be much help during the fight.

Now how to get Vista to see the truck? Rene could ram into the lead van, hopefully enough be enough of an impact to disrupt the cloaking tech. Though it might also mean that one of the later vans could get enough warning to avoid the wall. It would depend on if the other vans could sense each other.

I relayed my plan to the other two. Vista gave her assent as did Clockblocker. Ten seconds later, we struck.

Rene manifested ten feet above the lead van's engine and slammed downward, spearing his blades down in attempt to hit something vital in the engine. The van flickered into existence upon contact.

Vista jumped in immediately pulling the back of the passenger's side roof towards us. Clockblocker reached forward, giving her an end location and hand touched metal. What forward momentum the van had died instantly.

Time since Rene revealed our presence? Half a second.

The frozen van created a cascade of events, the next van smashed into the frozen van, hard, shuddering into visibility as it did so. The front end completely crumpling on the immovable object. Rene actually popped when Clockblocker had frozen the van. Oh yeah, did _not_ want to get on his bad side.

The other vans collided with each other and then I descended manifesting a pillar of white Digisoul that illuminated the cloudy sky. The normal gangbangers were disoriented from the car crashes. Skidmark and Squealer were busy in their cage... if not unconscious. Our enemy was in disarray, now to see if I couldn't capitalize.

" **Surrender, Now!"**

"Jesus Christ!" Clockblocker muttered, shocked by the roar my voice came out as and the manifestation of my digisoul. ...And, the carnage that he had helped cause as well probably. I hadn't expected it to go _that_ well.

I waited a few seconds, and watched as the gang members scrambled out, hands up in air, good no blood would have to be shed today. Clockblocker was calling what I presume to be Armsmaster, although that brought the question where Master and that person was before going to the Abomination's traits in the first vehicle.

Time resumed for the van and it tried to lurch forward, before I planted myself in front of it and stopped it again. Well, if they hadn't been unconscious before, they were _now_. Then quicker than anybody else could react I was at the driver's side door and shoved my arm blade through the door. I used my claws to grab Skidmark (somehow still conscious… oh wait, _Tinker Tech_.) and pulled him out forcefully throwing him onto the cement, my tail blade went to Squealer's throat. "Both of you are under arrest y—"

"Fuck you, asshole!" Skidmark yelled as he tried to spit at me. "What the hell man!"

My foot blade came to rest on his chest, and I glared straight in his eyes. My Soul burning around me.

"There is a difference between a "Hero" and a "Knight." While I always try to be the former, I am first and foremost a 'Knight,'" I growled. "You. Do. _Not_. Want to know the difference. Get me?" He quieted down at that, before Clockblocker came over to him.

"Yeah, definitely terrifying. You agree, right, Squealer?" He asked turning to the Tinker.

"Yeah! Shit! Please, don't kill me." Her request was almost couldn't be heard over the other Merchants moaning from their minor injuries. Rene was on her other side and I could see her shrink into herself in self preservation.

I felt Master's presence before I heard him bringing the other Wards we met along with Glory Girl onto the scene. They looked over everything for a moment before Glory Girl broke the silence.

"Shit! You _wrecked_ them, didn't you?" I didn't get the terminology, but I assumed she meant the trucks.

"They lined up for us," I replied tilting my head. "Clockblocker and Vista did most of the work really."

"You missed the joke, Jesmon, but that's okay," Master snarked. Thank you, Omnimon and Duftmon, for ordering us to call each other by our real names while on patrol. He never would have otherwise.

I heard the roar of a motorcycle and felt another piece of the Abomination's Taint draw closer. I turned my head keeping my tail blade near Squealer, and my foot blade on Skidmark.

It was Armsmaster. I had read the man's file, and I was impressed by his accomplishments, and Master had confided in me that the man would be an entertaining sparring partner... In human form at least. Which was high praise coming from him.

"Gallant, report," he said looking at us and then snapping his eyes to the Wards a second after.

"We encountered Jesmon and Gankoomon at 8:05. Jesmon alerted us to Merchant vehicles before inviting Clockblocker and Vista to join him in taking down the Merchants." He paused afterwards trying to phrase the fact that they had gone with me and split up the group without making it sound like a betrayal.

"So you can sense other Capes?" Clockblocker started once again drawing attention to himself, which I was fine with, and me, which I was less fine with. If he was going to do that, he should have asked about Examon. I _had_ said that I'd tell him after we caught the Merchants, which we had.

" _Subtle_ ," Master snorted before I gave him a glare.

"Vista! Report," Armsmaster snapped, as if Master hadn't said anything. Which to be fair was a valid method of response until Master punched you in the face… I hated my days as a Champion.

"I dragged Clockblocker along with me without asking and we followed Jesmon until we reached the roof over there," she said pointing out the building where we had launched our ambush from.

"After Jesmon developed a plan of attack, we implemented it. And as you can see," she raised an open hand to the gang members cowering on the asphalt, and the parahumans under my foot and tail. "It was very successful."

He stilled at that, glancing at me and Master.

"All of you report to Director Piggot," he walked over to me, and gestured at Skidmark. I lifted my foot off of Skidmark only for Armsmaster to yank him up, spin him around and place restraints around his wrists before throwing him back onto the ground.

He went up to Squealer and did the same thing after I pulled my tail blade away.

The rest of the gang members were rounded up similarly and Master pulsed his digisoul in small bursts, gaining my attention. He moved his fingers against his side two times, and my eyes focused on Armsmaster. That signal meant we had matters pertaining to our roles as knights to attend to.

"I think we're done for the night, Clockblocker," I said turning to the Ward. "I'll talk to you about Examon later, maybe tomorrow."

Before Armsmaster could try to stop us, we burst off the ground and then broke the sound barrier, flying into the sky. We continued on like that until the city only sparkled like a cluster of stars had decided to rest on the earth.

"What's this about, Master?" my tone completely serious.

"Our token-good teammates on the human side of things just alerted us to the fact that there's going to be a U.N meeting two weeks from now in London, West-Minister. Now as much as I would like to not be there, it's kinda about us… Anyway, Omnimon wants u—"

"When did you find out about this?" I asked. He couldn't have found out during the mission. There wasn't time.

"At 3:00 P.M." he replied nonchalantly, ignored my squawk of outrage. "Really Omnimon should stop trusting me to tell you these things on time."

"Before you continue on... What would it actually take for you to tell me things on time?"

"The details on the Meikumon incident."

"Not gonna happen," I shot back.

"Oh come off it Brat, I only got the fact that Alphamon beat the shit out of some human kids partners, and that was under the influence of Bacchusmon's strongest brew during our 200 hundred year get together."

"Good for you. Now the details about this U.N meeting please..."

He stared at me before sighing. "By Yggdrasil, I wish Nohr was here. She could get anything out of you."

I noted his mention of her. He had put a hole through the wall where he had thrown Dynasmon after he had made a jab about Nohr, so it was good that he was mentioning them again.

"Anywho the details are all the Abomination carriers from each countries governments are gonna be there, and since the President is having a Press Conference right now, all the public is gonna know."

"Okay and why couldn't you have told me this in the apartment building?" I asked in annoyance.

"Two reasons. A: We need to get ready in case everything to goes to shit, so we're retiring for the night and running scenarios on what we're going to do. We can establish a presence in the Merchants territory with Rene and Por, and if you think I'm going anywhere near Lung without something to cap his regeneration, you have another thing coming. And B: You need to get your shit together. I know you've fucked up more than what happened with Taylor so what's your deal."

I deflated at this. "It's because I've failed as a Royal Knight. I took an oath to save everyone in need, and while i wasn't able to do that as a rookie, but I thought once I reached mega, I'd at least be able to save my closest friend, instead now she won't even talk to me! And look at the rest of you, you guys have been fulfilling your missions perfectly and haven't screwed up once. Even during the Civil War you were only doing what you believed would save the digital world. Me I can't even keep my promise to a human." I was cut off as Master started laughing.

"Brat, that is the most _inane_ and _hilarious_ **bullshit** I have ever heard." He held up a finger to stop me from speaking

"Okay, first off, Idiot Student, let me reassure you when I say _all_ the Knights have fucked up way worse than you. And before you disagree with me I want you to think on something. Do you remember that one reality where everybody in your town died and I saved you? It was one of the first realities in where Hackmon popped up."

Slowly I nodded my head, unsure of where he was going with this. It was the world from which most of my personality came from, of course I'd remember it. "Haven't you ever wondered what caused it to be destroyed? What caused the earth to **shatter** , and the digital sea to **boil** for miles all around?"

"I did sometimes. I just assumed it had something to do with the Demon Lord's Invasion," I began to cradle my head even as I replied. Memories I thought had been lost bubbling up. The smell of burning data. A Howl, the memory of which still chilled me to my Core. A flash of blood red in front of my eyes.

"Well it _did_ have something to do with that, but they weren't the direct cause," Master muttered. "The person who caused it was Gallantmon." He raised his hand up to stop my denials. "The Student lets the Teacher finish, Brat! To be more precise, it was Megidramon. Which to be fair, is Gallantmon during the, _thankfully_ once-in-a-lifetime, moments where he gets well and truly _angry_. I don't know what set that one off, but in the end he stopped caring about little things like "Innocent Lives" or "Collateral Damage." He just wanted all his enemies to die. In the most brutal, destructive ways he could imagine."

I jumped in at that. Master's request for me to be quiet be damned. "But Megidramon has been stopped before! He's never been that destructive, heck from what I remember from Gallantmon's stories a member of the demon lords species, was able to take him down."

"Perhaps, but there were some major differences between the two. The humans only had to deal with a dumb Megidramon. It was also practically a baby. Angry, yes, but not in full control of its power; and what's more, angry only at a specific being. It lashed out wildly and without forethought. Even then, it still would have slayed that Beelzemon had the two been left alone. It was (unintentional) outside intervention that caused that Megidramon to loose. The Gallantmon that changed into Megidramon... It had intelligence behind its strength, it had the knowledge that comes with age that let it use its power to the fullest, and it simply wanted **everything** to **go away**. I arrived too late to help stop it, but from what Omnimon told me, he would have rather taken on Lucemon in ShadowLord Mode alone, rather than deal with an intelligent Megidramon with the Hazard active.

That's only one of our brothers. Did you know Omnimon literally hunted down and almost killed Alphamon multiple times, or that Magnamon helped? Dynasmon and Crusadermon have been corrupted before, although I doubt they remember it. All of our brothers have similarly failed, so before you go wanking "I'm such a failure," think on what our brothers have done themselves, and you'll find that you are still worthy of being a Royal Knight."

"Thanks Master" I replied thinking the conversation over in my head. It was something to think on.

"So back to the apartment."

"Back to the apartment."

"You took care of Amy and Taylor right."

"Okay, first off: Yesterday sucked hard vacuum, and there is no way in hell I am dealing with Amy. That is Magnamon's child. Second, _yes_ I met with Daniel and gave him enough money to fix the ferry, and gave him enough money to cart Taylor to Arcadia."

"Thank you, Master," I said again before descending to the ground. Master following me. Rene and Por would make sure we weren't mugged on the way home. It had been a productive night, overall.

 **End 3.4: Right here, Right now.**

This chapter was a pain in the ass to write. No _seriously_ , every other chapter was easier to write than this. Except for the Christmas Omake, which to be fair, I wrote in segments… Moving on, we're almost there to that promised land of a singular P.O.V. "Huzzah!" Anybody? Anywho thanks AbZ for beta'ing. The U.N Meeting is next chapter, where everybody gets to bask in Examons greatness, and people find out what the "Jes" part of Jesmon stands for. With maybe an omake of Gankoomon's bad day...


	24. Chapter 16: We Are One - Triarii

Worm Protocol 3.5: We Are One - Triarii

Omnimons P.O.V

Location: London, Britain; 3:00 PM January 15

I looked down at the crowd gathering below, the streets were cordoned off, but that hadn't stopped what seemed to be a literal wave of humans and carriers of the Abominations taint from gathering outside of the Palace of Westminster. I was currently on the roof of a building across from the destination, awaiting the arrival of my twelve Brothers-in-Arms. Scanning the crowd further, my eyes narrowed as Eidolon, Alexandria, and Legend flew over the pathway leading into the meeting place. If they wanted to ruin everything, this _would_ be the perfect opportunity. I heard the sounds of wings snapping and a gust of air roll over behind me. Ulforce no doubt.

"Sup Omnimon? Am I really the second one here?" His tone was joking but I knew if I looked behind me I'd find him scanning the streets and planning out evacuation routes. "Speaking of which if this goes pear-shaped what do we do?"

"If more than seven of us fall, the reminder ignite the planet. If not the mission continues just with more hostiles, and greater focus on Africa and toppling the Yang Ban," I muttered to him, keeping my eyes to the crowd eyes marking parahumans, I recognized Narwhal, and one of Dragon's suits...

"This Gallantmon believes we spend too much time hanging around on rooftops," my dearest friend stated, landing on top of the building red cape flapping due to the wind. He had fallen back into his nervous tick of referring to himself in first then third person, it was worrying that twelve days away from an urban city could upset his established personality. And I did have to wonder how no one had yet noticed our arrivals. Flight might have been uncommon in this world but it wasn't unheard of, and Sonic Booms don't pass by for no reason. Were they being attributed to other "Capes"?

"Well, this UlforceVeedramon thinks it adds to the ambiance. And be honest with me, would _you_ want to deal with all of those humans and their cameras?" he asked, pointing at the literal sea of people, a grimace on his face.

"This Gallantmon would not, however he is surprised you, of all mon, are shying away from the free attention." A tone of amusement had made it's way into his voice.

"Brothers, this world cannot handle the sheer amount of _Awesome_ that is me." He ignored both me and Gallantmon's chuffs of amusement. "I, however, do not approve of walking into kill-boxes unless I get my Force program up and running so I can just stand there and laugh while they do nothing but tire out. I mean I spotted four groups of parahumans on the surrounding buildings." He took the time to turn to each direction and wave. Looking to the other groups, I noted that one of them actually waved back.

He paused, as his train of thought connected to another track. "Speaking of which, did you guys see what Gankoomon had to deal with? I pity Jesmon for being sucked into that mess." I mentally agreed. Gankoomon didn't appreciate people who regenerated from or just flat out _ignored_ his punches.

"Well, Alphamon is to lazy to walk it seems," Ulforce noted dryly, still speaking. I tore my eyes from the mass of people, who had started adjusting their cameras to the sky and...

"Wow, he's really using Ooryumon to fly over here? This Gallantmon, could have done that if Grani wasn't currently locked inside his Crimson Mode Code. _Instead_ , he got nice a notice in the middle of a _desert_ that he needed to be on another continent in three days days with _no method of travel provided_ ," the Viral Knight pointed his words towards me.

I was about to reply when Ooryumon flew over us and Alphamon dropped off from him, a green sigil of high-code opening for Ooryumon to enter. I suppressed a growl as in a singular motion the wave of heads turned up towards us, cameras flashing. I sent Alphamon a dirty look only for him to blow it off.

"Gee bro, isn't that a little excessive for an intro?" Ulforce snorted, crossing his arm.

"Hey Kettle, have you seen my friend Pot lately?" Alphamon retorted, mimicking UlForce intentionally, air of nonchalance ever-present. "Also, this rooftop is going to be crowded pretty soon, isn't it shouldn't we be going down?' He sent a questioning glance towards me.

"We make sure all our brothers are accounted for before we enter the conference," I stated tiredly, Then I closed my eyes and searched for incoming digisoul. All nine were approaching, Craniumon no doubt having put a veritable fortress of viruses, and firewalls in the portals of the Digital World before leaving.

"It gladdens my heart to see you all," Sleipmon said as he landed, Magnamon flying with him onto the roof. I could see Jesmon, and Gankoomon on the horizon approaching.

"It's only been like three weeks, but good to see you two. By the way I loved the fireworks display you started in Hong Kong," Ulforce rambled, moving up to Sleipmon and slinging his arm around him, "It's was almost impressive as the greatest one night game of Hide and Seek I played with nazis."

"I still can't believe you tied them up in wrapping paper and ribbons and literally handed the leaders to the police chief gift-wrapped," Gallantmon muttered with a weary sigh. I knew the feeling of the exhaustion that came beyond surprise, this last Christmas refamiliarizing me with the concept. Though I also noted that Gallantmon was beginning to get more comfortable as more of our brothers made it here safely.

"Hey guys!" Jesmon's cheerful voice reached my ears, as he spun around us to kill his momentum. I also heard Gankoomon's much more blunt greeting.

"Hello Jesmon, Gankoomon, its some impressive work you've done in the Bay," Magnamon said nodding his head, before following up his compliment with a question. "How's Amy doing?"

He steadfastly ignored Ulforce's cough of "Mother Hen. "

"She's doing better. She's decided to take a break, and refuses to be strong-armed back into it, although her sister still partly blames you for the change." the annoyance was evident in his voice. It made me wonder how many times he'd had to deal with _that_ particular conversation before the two had left.

"I'll make it up to you Gankoomon," Magnamon promised. "And I thank you and Jesmon for looking out for her."

"Not a problem, I know you'd do the same for me, and Tay—" He cut off. Odd.

"What the brat means to say is don't mention it," he said, shooting a quick glare at the Jesmon before sighing. There was definitely something I was missing. I would find out, _after_ we made it out of this. "Where the hell is Duftmon?" Gankoomon muttered, trying to change the subject. "Those camera flashes are getting annoying."

"I'm here, dear brother," Duftmon stated wings curling inwards, as he landed on the roof with us. And again, the flashes tried to reach a blinding frequency. Looking at the assembled members, he continued. "Now we just need for Examon, Dynastmon, Craniummon, and Crusadermon to get down here."

"They know that the building we're meeting at can't fit him, right?" Jesmon asked, glancing between the door and the roof of the building, while scratching his chin. "Even at his smallest, in Digital Form he'd have to remove the roof if he didn't want to bring it down on their heads."

"You say that like they _wanted_ us here," Gankoomon muttered. "This is them trying to figure out what to do about us, Brat. While it might be _called_ an Open Invitation, the fact is we're more party crashers than some of the villains today are."

"Not to worry," Sleipmon interjected, ignoring Gankoomon's griping. "I have a feeling that I as well would have difficulty maneuvering inside and I have a plan for that which should work for the both of us."

Three of the remaining Digisoul emissions formed up beyond the horizon. We turned to watch as Craniumon lead the triangular formation. Even from here I could feel the frustration rolling off of Dynastmon's and Crusadermon's Souls. I mentally prepared for a headache.

As the three approached, I also began to feel Craniummon's quiet satisfaction. "Anyone trying to access our Lord's realm will soon find their equipment has been replaced with bricks," he stated with confidence.

I had barely time to nod before Dynastmon came up and shoved me. "You are a _complete idiot_ ," he hissed. "It would be within my brother's talents to train humans, pathetic as they may be. Were they even half as skilled as PawnChessmon that would have been fine. It is quite another to expect him to do so between multiple factions of Commandramon, Byiomon, and Elecmon, who all can't stand each other! Between the two of us we barely have a moment's peace before either one of the groups we are trying to train try and kill each other or someone comes from outside to do the same. Be grateful I was able to convince Crusadermon to allow me to voice his displeasure, or our appearance of unity would be _shattered_."

"It doesn't matter," I rebuked him. "We're here to make a statement. From this day forward, for better or worse, we start on the final path, so it matters little what the humans do, we stand together, and we stand tall."

My piece said, I jumped off the building, Gallantmon and Alphamon flanking me, and I sensed the rest of my brothers follow. We had just landed among the blinding flashes of the cameras and the clamor of human reporters when I heard it. It was the clatter like giant metal fans snapping. The humans _reacted_. Some, especially those nearby screamed and ran for cover. Others curled and braced against what was really a gentle breeze compared to what he could actually apply. And a brave or despairing few gazed skyward at what might very well have been the last thing they saw had he been in a more temperamental mood.

I didn't need to look up to see who it was. Examon, Caldfwich flared, and as we started walking forward I heard him, land the ground trembling under his weight.

"Come brothers, it's time to change the world."

"It brings back memories doesn't it?" Examon started his loud baritone meaning that everyone in the area easily heard him.

"It sure does, except to be fair, the effect of your arrival was sorta of ruined when she literally "glomped" you as the humans put it," Ulforce replied back, we all chuckled at that. Except Examons rumbled the street.

"Everyone, a moment?" Sleipmon asked. Ah yes, his "plan" to deal with the Size issue. The Equine knight moved his shield forward towards the middle of the group, parallel to the ground. " **Odin's Breath**." We watched as the air below the shield chilled to near arctic temperatures in less than a second, ice beginning to form. That was when I noted that it was forming in a rather peculiar way, Sliepmon was making ice sculptures of himself and Examon that were closer to our more human sizes of just under two meters tall. "Alphamon, if you could help with the Coding?"

He was planning that the two of them pilot the sculptures as automatons, allowing them to enter the building with much less difficulty and spreading us out a bit further in case of emergency.

I had never pursued digi-coding and for a moment I regretted that decision before focusing on the task at hand. Witchenly would likely arrive once Yggdrasil reopened the barrier between worlds, until then we were on our own.

"So is everybody ready?" I asked searching. my brother's faces as Examon and Sliepmon knelt and began commanding their temporary forms.

As the ice sculptures of my brothers nodded I turned around, and walked into the doors of Westminister.

I was greeted by a group of Parahumans, I recognized there insignia they were the "Royal Knights of England" They were here before us and had taken the name from a group of jousters, but still I did not recognize a monarch that was not Yggdrasil.

"Party of thirteen last name Yggdrasil." Ulforce jumped in probably recognizing why our brothers wouldn't be too excited with this particular group. He cupped his mouth as if he was going to whisper a secret.

"Guys shouldn't they have already gotten us seats...I mean this is about us."

"What my brother means to say is, we have things to attend to, and if we could just go to the meeting that would be wonderful," Craniumon butted in Avalon materializing in his hand.

I saw one of the members jaw clench. "If you would all please leave your weapons here."

I pointedly ignored Gallantmon's snorts and most of my brothers eyes going towards my arms or Jesmon's limbs.

"So... it would be a pretty awkward meeting if I had to disarm our Fearless Leader, literally. And Jesmon's too nice. It would feel like dissecting a puppy. So how about "Nooo"?" Ulforce drew out the last word, and I realized that Ulforce probably didn't want to be here either.

He made to protest before a device in his ear buzzed. I saw him grit his teeth before he spoke again.

"You may proceed to the meeting room just know that all of us will be watching you."

"Ohh shit, guys I'm—Grrk." Gankoomons disrespect was cut off as Gallantmon's and Alphamon's curled fists came down on his head.

"Sorry about him he's always been a troublesome child." Gallantmon muttered before grabbing Gankoomon and pulling him up.

We continued on the hallway and I noted the Abominations taint hiding in one of the lights...That may just be a guard or it could be hitman either way I noticed my brothers eyes flick over the light before continuing on. If they had also sensed it we had nothing to worry about.

We came to pair of doors which were opened by two men in black suits. Examon had to curl his construct into fit inside. The same in Sleipmon.

The room was packed. It was circular in nature humans of all various ethnicities were packed together, I picked out the Triumvirate along with the president.

Predictably once we entered the room went silent.

"I do believe," Examon drawled, "it is considered good manners to talk to the to someone's _front_ before speaking behind their backs."

Then the room exploded.

"I had forgotten your _taciturn_ sense of humor, brother," Craniumon muttered.

"How can it be anything _but_ taciturn?" Ulforce muttered. "If he had anyone else to talk to, you'd get mad at me for slacking off."

"Are you _pouting_ , Ulforce. By Yggdrasil." Magnamon muttered.

"Order! Order!"

"Holy shit! It's just like Judge Judy!" Ulforce muttered sadness forgotten, as the room finally quieted down.

"Does anybody _else_ have a problem with the fact that he can reference t.v shows yet still do laps around the world within an hour?" Magnamon muttered to the rest of us before the attention in the room landed back onto us.

I sighed heavily. First things to start with reassurances... Although considering the looks the Chinese Embassy was shooting us some force may be in order.

"Let it be known that our intention is the survival of the human race and safety for all parties," I began.

"Yes, your members performing a terrorist attack and wiping out a city though use of Nuclear Weapons is _completely_ in line with the survival of the human race!" one of the male PRT heads shouted.

"Considering if one day "Nilbog" could have gotten bored with just staying within Elsburg's walls and spread his "creations" across the state, the country, the world. Yes, yes, it is," Duftmon replied, as if insulted that his plan of attack was being questioned, especially by an outsider.

"You are also ignoring the fact of Sleipmon's attack on the protectors of our homelands protectors." The Chinese ambassador jumped.

"Ahh yes, the Yangban. The brainwashed children and adults you take and make to be your soldiers, which is also probably why you've never accepted help for Endbringer attack nor provided such," Gallantmon snarled.

"I hardly see how that is relevant," The Chinese ambassador snapped nose in the air.

"IT MATTERS BECAUSE EVERYBODY IN THIS ROOM KNOWS THAT SOCIETY IS COLLAPSING AND YET YOU BICKER!" Jesmon roared back. I was shocked along, with the rest of my brothers.

"Every Endbringer Attack results in millions in property damage and lost lives. As of yet, even with the contributions of those willing to put themselves between civilians and those things nothing more is accomplished than there being fewer people to fight the next one," Magnamon began softly.

"Humanity's strength has always been its ability to unify to plan, and yet here you are caring about national pride, and other foolish things, when instead you could all band together and kill these creatures. What has happened to the world when personal pride is worth more than the survival of the human race," Sleipmon continued, remembering his own experience of an invasion with intent to destroy.

"Be that as it may. You speak of the survival of the human race, but your cohort here watches over us all, with the ability to unleash Weapons of Mass Destruction upon us," The President of the United States spoke up.

"I am willing to comply with any and all UN treaties regarding my normal theater of operations," Examon stated calmly.

"First things first, I'm sure everybody in this room would rather not have you running around freely." I noticed Ulforce's eye-ridge twitch. While it was true that Examon and Sleipmon were outside, the rest of us were not. "However, as the President of the United States I would be more amiable to negotiations if I knew what your range was."

"As you have no doubt seen from my previous operations, my range is quite extensive. In fact, were it not for our lack of data on the Simurgh's capabilities, I would have launched an attack upon it, after my arrival over London. As for my maximum effective range… Honestly, I've never found it."

"Find it quickly then or negotiations will fall through." The Prime Minister of England shot back and I was torn between rage at the disrespect or respect at his clear courage despite the fact he had no powers.

"Does that mean you _want_ me to start firing at distant targets and seeing where I reliably start to miss?"

He ground his teeth. "Okay, give us an estimation, at where your range starts failing."

I watched as Examon flicked his eyes up and to the side, half-thinking/half-remembering. "None of my shots in the Service of the Royal Knights has ever been more than 2,500 kilometers," he said finally. _'The longer ones he took_ _ **before**_ _we convinced him to come down.'_

I watched as the assembly tried to digest that information. The only one who really seemed to understand quite what that distance actually _meant_ was Legend. _He_ was gawking openly. To the rest it was simply an incredibly large number.

"So, can I leave?" Alphamon asked, half at me and half at the general assembly. Arms crossed, he was annoyed. "It's just as the Canadian Representative already knows, most of Ontario has been in major upheaval for the past couple of days due to Heartbreaker running around for so long." 

"Oh yes let's not forget the destruction you brought upon my country when you took down Heartbreaker." Was he arguing this? Really?

Alphamon merely crossed his arms and closed his eyes. I felt his digisoul rise up in anger before it quieted down before it could visibly manifest.

"Ahh yes, _please, please,_ _forgive me_ for taking down the _clearly dangerous psychopath_ who as it was found had taken control of an Army General's wife. Silly me, it's _obviously_ my fault for letting such a person run around for so long."

I didn't need this now. "Alphamon, yes, you can leave. Be safe."

"Aren't I always, Fearless Leader?" he asked breezily. _'No, no, you are not. Or have you forgotten your last date?'_ A portal of high coding appeared before him, and he entered it.

Gallantmon sent me a look which suggested he knew what I was thinking.

"Moving On, all we want is to continue providing safety for this world. I'm sure most of you can agree that is laudable goal." I kept my eyes on the Chinese ambassador. The meeting continued from there.

"I would like to comment on this "Drasilla" your members Crusadermon and Dynasmon have formed, more importantly the practices there." The Prime Minister started.

Crusadermon and Dynasmon got a look from all of us. We had assumed that the other nations had kept out of Africa. Clearly we were wrong.

"What practices are you speaking of." Crusadermon started in a tone that was far colder than Sliepmon's Odins Breath.

"I'd like to start with the crucifying of citizens of Bostwania." He started causing all of the rooms members to focus on us.

"To start with, esteemed Prime Minister, those "citizens" were soldiers, and after taking down three other regiments of them with little fanfare, I decided that to discourage any more attempts from another wannabe Mord Nag. To do that, I'd make an example."

"In recompense, I'm sure everybody would be interested in trading with us when they found out about the gold and silver deposits we found." Like that everybody's posture changed, as Beelzemon's patron sin took over them, Greed… ' _Humans,_ ' I thought dejectedly I glanced at Gallantmon who practically radiated disappointment.

"We'll continue on that avenue later, then," Germany's Ambassador hedged. "Onto the matters of what to do with Examon."

I withheld a groan. This was going to be a _long_ meeting.

9:00 PM London, near Big Ben

 **Omnimon P.O.V.**

"I thought that meeting would never end." Gallantmon groaned.

"Speaking of which, I never knew Examon to be petty." I gestured from atop the rooftop we were on to Big Ben which Examon was using as perch. Many of the others had already left for their normal missions.

"Would it not rankle you if you were confined to a single space of land when you could soar across the planet?" he asked. I thought on that statement.

"Oh."

"It's trading one shackle for another," Gallantmon replied leaning onto a chimney. "It's like that for all of us, you know? I think that's why we were so high strung the last couple of days before we left."

I winced at the memories. Police had started to become an almost near fixture near our apartment, our conflicts had gotten so bad.

Seeing my dejected look he continued on, "It's harder for him, you know? Even among us he's always been different."

"We treat him like a brother all the same!" I snapped, rising to my feet at the implication.

"That we do." he agreed, hands in the air. "It doesn't change the fact that he towers over us all, and it's only in our mode changes that You, I, Alphamon, and Ulforce can handle him. As the humans call it he's a First Class Singularity that only graces the world once a millenia. It's why he treasured Yggdrasil so dearly. She never saw him as anything special. She just saw another knight to help safeguard the Digital World."

"It was different for us though," I muttered, slumping back.

Gallantmon snorted. "My dearest friend, we're fucking _ancient_ compared to humans. These versions of us maybe what? Ten months old?" He waved his hand dismissively. "But in combined experience, I'm pushing twelve hundred and you have another hundred years on me. With the exception of Alphamon, we all outstrip the others in age."

I sighed before staring up at the sky. We' couldn't see the stars, but the gesture was understood by Gallantmon.

"They're so confusing." I said changing the topic.

"To be fair, most humans can't turn that shade of purple like the Chinese Ambassador did when he stormed out. Still, you've guided us well, the humans barely put the harshest sanctions they could on us." As he continued he began counting off on his fingers. "Nobody's tried to kill us today, which is always a plus. On the other hand, Crusadermon is considering killing you, Dynastmon might help if things continue. Craniumon still has his issues. I am extremely worried about Jesmon."

"Don't mother him. Gankoomon will get jealous," I interjected.

Gallantmon smirked as he continued on the tangent. "I still need to get Ulforce to call him a "Mother-henning Tsundere." As I was saying, Magnamon was concerned over his "daughter." And Alphamon is stressed."

"That's it?" I sent him a look causing him to stare at me.

"With the exception of our initial founding, Alphamon never stayed around this long. Instead he's always been the type to show up at the last second and Be a Big Damn Hero."

"He's _lazy_ , you mean," I snorted.

"I was going for the fact that he believes that he should wait for the Digital World to try and stop its own problems before he steps in, but that interpretation works too."

"And finally," I raised an eyebrow at this. "My leader has been questioning his abilities to lead more times than he has during his previous thirteen hundred years of leadership."

"How's the personality change thing going?" I snapped back. I did _not_ need his psych eval.

"It's going as well as reigning in that universe destroying force I've had for I believe all of my existence. So... pretty good," he replied trouncing my protests.

"And how about me?" Examon asked, reminding us that he was here.

"You're being an exemplary figure of a knight. Watching over the charges his lord entrusted to him." I replied calmly, knowing he would hear me.

He grumbled for a bit before I saw his head lift up, and his wings carry him to the exosphere. I ignored Gallantmon's smile.

"You'll do fine, my friend," he said, his hand on my shoulder. "Now if you'll excuse me, I want to go check up on that caravan I ferried to one of Egypt's cities."

"Another person falls under the great Gallantmon's cape." I replied.

"That was only once! And Alphamon practically adopted two of Heartbreakers kids!" he shouted as he flew off the building. ...Wait, what was that last part?

End 3.5 Right Here, Right Now

AN: Wow these things have been getting longer. Hopefully that means my writing has been improving! Either way I'm forgoing Gankoomon's Omake in favor of an Origins interlude… It feels good to be back in my writing groove.


	25. Chapter 17: Lesson 1: Don't Wake Sleepin

Worm Protocol 4.1: Lesson 1: Don't Wake Sleeping Gankoomon

Location Brockton Bay January 17: Brockton Bay 9:00 AM

I liked to sleep in. It was the _only_ bonus to being in this _Yggdrasil_ -awful, _human form_ I got. Which is why I did not enjoy being woken up by my specifically-made tinker-tech-phone, which really wasn't tinker-tech, but it was ahead of all the phones on Earth Bet, and had it's own made charger for it. Seriously, Duftmon, you overcomplicated bastard.

"This is Gankoomon speaking. Who is it?" I asked trying to put some tone of formality in my voice. I failed utterly, but I'd like to see anybody else do better after they were stuck in a room for 6 hours two days ago, and spent the next one convincing his student not to save every cat in the tree on the way back.

' _It's still better than being here with the Taylor Issue.'_ I thought, before I was cut off from that train of thought by the other person speaking.

"Gankoomon, it's Daniel Hebert." and just like that I knew my dreams of a quiet morning were just shot. He was calling on my "work" phone for one. The fact that he didn't know Gary and Gankoomon were the same also meant I had to watch what I said.

"What's the problem, Daniel?" I asked, the man was a good one morally and could deal with my own particular personality, which from what ninety percent of the Digital World told me meant we were practically best friends already.

"The guys have been complaining about some Merchants causing trouble because of the ferry being rebuilt due to your generous donations. I was wondering if you can take care of them… The other thing is I'm pretty sure I've been tailed for the past two days, there's been this van at the end of my street, and at work I can look out my window and see it in the parking lot."

My face turned grim at that. Danny Herbert was the lynchpin of our operations here. If I could develop a working class base with him, once the villains were gone, Brockton Bay would flourish, and I had a nice contract saying where credit... And future public support would go to the Royal Knights. It was one of Duftmon's classics. Pompous overachieving ass.

"Well then it looks like I'm taking out your Merchant Problem. I'll watch out for this van," I stated. "...And maybe hold someone over a rooftop," I muttered to myself, though he heard it.

"Is that something everyone in your group does, or is that just Ulforce?" I'm surprised he had seen that video. Then again, anything related to us went viral, and considering the curriculum I pulled from Winslow High's records was going to be a topic in World Studies.

"If it's effective, don't knock it. Anyway I'll be there in a couple minutes. If gunshots start going off before I get there hide or something," I told him, before turning off my phone. I sent out a digisoul pulse alerting the Brat, that I was working. I felt a return pulse, and popped my neck. Amy was at Arcadia, so that was Magnus' problem taken care of, and my Brat could take care of himself.

I walked out of the room, quickly putting on some jeans, and a t-shirt, I walked out of the room, down the stairs and out into Brockton Bay's chilly air. I walked down the street, took a right turn into an alleyway and then entered through a cordoned off warehouse. I took a second to remember punching Ulforce in the face here and smiled.

I was enveloped in fractal code, and where once was a painfully short middle-aged Vietnamese man was a nine foot, red haired, asian man in black bodysuit, with a white coat hanging off of his shoulders. Yggdrasil, it felt good to be in this form.

I exited the warehouse where I entered and then. I rose into the sky, gravity being denied by my Digital nature. The buildings in Brockton Bay becoming specks to my eyes.

I could take care of the Merchants first, and then deal with Daniel's tail later. I had been very discreet when I met with him as Gankoomon when I gave him my number and the money to rebuild the ferry. So I doubted anybody had connected me to Daniel Hebert… yet.

I went to Ferry's Station, and I was greeted to the sight of repairman working on the titular ferry, some dockworkers at the side doing their own respective jobs, and on the outskirts... Bingo! There were the Merchants Daniel had talked about. And what do you know? In the parking lot was the van. Still, trash first _then_ mysterious van.

I floated down behind the van the Merchants were using. I knocked on the door.

"Hey, Jimmy, you back alr—" A white man with rotten teeth and ripped jeans with an equally dirty shirt opened the van's back door only to find my smiling face. "Oh... Sh—" He was cut off as my fist impacted his face sending him to the van's floor with a worrying crack.

"Uggh," I grumbled, "Humans are so fragile." Still he was lucky to get off with me just crushing his nose.

"Now where's 'Jimmy'?" I muttered, when I heard a someone walk into the alleyway. I turned to see a man who looked almost as bad as the Merchant I knocked out with bloodshot eyes.

"Wow, just... I don't have anything to say to this," I grumbled before raising my voice. "You Jimmy?"

"Yeah, man, like, when did you get red hair?" Oh no...

"My Lady, despite the fact that I joined after Imperialdramon Paladin Mode left, what have I done to deserve this?" Please let this be a joke.

"Dude when did you go religious?" The obviously high Merchant asked. I sighed, he didn't even notice when I was suddenly behind him

"When God's Shield punched me in the face," I said before giving him a light chop to the neck which sent him into blissful unconsciousness. I got out my phone and called the PRT.

"So this is Gankoomon speaking, I've got two unconscious Merchants. One with a broken nose and the other one's unconscious. I'm standing right by their van, and if you want to find me look out the window." I turned off my phone, and I manifested Hinukamuy until he was thirty feet tall. The instant I did I felt a digisoul pulse, and I sent back two signaling to the Brat I was fine. Really, did he honestly expect that these humans would give me trouble?

9:20 A.M.

"I leave them to you, gentleman," I said to the PRT officers. I walked out of the alleyway, and past the crowd of people had gathered, Hinukamuy's presence causing them to back off. I let loose a smile as I saw it leaving the parking lot. ' _Good, lead me back to the nest. Let's see who you work for in the dark.'_

Hinukamuy disappeared and I burst off the ground onto the sky. I aimed to get between my target and the sun, both keeping it out of my own eyes, and meaning that anyone looking for me would have to notice a black spot in the sun, most couldn't stand to look at it for more than an instant, so they had only that much time to notice.

I trailed over the van far above what a human would be able to see. I followed it for what had to be thirty minutes as it went around town. I was relatively sure they couldn't see me. So hopefully whoever they worked for was just paranoid, and not a parahuman with an unknown sight power. Because dealing with Examon on his good days was a fucking trial. I did _not_ want a parahuman on the other side.

I watched as the van finally turned into the doors of a warehouse before dropping onto the roof. It had a overview window and I had Hinukamuy invisibly look through it. Only to see the van turned off, and nobody in sight… What?

I waited another ten minutes and still no sign of the human. I didn't sense any Taint in the area, so this guy was an ordinary human. I finally had enough and broke through the window. Hopefully, the van would give me some insight into who owned it. No plates, I opened the back doors tearing them off only to see an empty backseat, and a clean dashboard. ...No seriously, _what the hell_?

I turned around snarling only to hear a faint beeping sound. Wait, what was...

The blast wave hit me first, causing me to dig my feet in the ground. Only then came a torrent of fire blossoming up out of the ground, into the warehouse and out the roof. I pulled one of my arms in front of my lower face, and one guarding my hair. My visor would protect my eyes while letting me see unimpeded.

These flames were hot, They weren't boiling my skin off like Apollomon's flames would have, but it was still _hot._ At least military grade, as it's the kind of blast I could expect from the D-Brigade.I grit my teeth in pain as Hinukamuy manifested around me extinguishing any fires that had caught onto me.

Then the roof came tumbling down covering me in a vale of scrap and smoke. I thought on what had happened, just laying there not even bothering to move. I had been _played_ , by some weak-ass pathetic human. They had known about my conversation with Daniel, they had realized he would call me, that I would come running, and using that they had led me here and then tried to kill me.

I sucked in a breath and then let my Soul _Burn_. " **Well then, if you humans want to play it** _ **that**_ **way... Fine, I just want you to know. You better have fucking** _ **Scion**_ **on call, because whoever you are** _ **you're dead**_ **."** In a show of power that was in _no_ way subtle, I made the ruined buildingexplodeagain, revealing my dusty, but unhurt condition. Now to find the asshole who led me here. Mice _jumped_ when they realized the cat wasn't dead.

I leapt out of the wreckage and looked around… Nothing I growled, the sound reverberating across the street. Okay, so maybe certain mice didn't jump when they realized an avenging God they tried to kill wasn't done breathing. _'Hinkamuy, we split up and find them.'_

And then the hunt began… Five minutes in, still nothing. Twenty minutes, in still nothing. Forty minutes in and _still fucking nothing_. An hour in and I had nothing to show. Okay I would do one last check at the warehouse, and after that I was done. For today anyway, I would tell the others about the van and their little bomb trick. Few could stand long when they were against Duftmon.

I landed at the warehouse only to scowl when I saw PRT vans, police cars, and multiple Capes. Joy.

My scowl must have deepened because the approaching police officer halted, but that didn't stop Mrs. 'Murrica with her american flag wrapped as a scarf from approaching me.

"Gankoomon, we were hoping you'd answer some questions for us."

"Some asshole blew up in the warehouse I was in. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go check the building to see if my attempted murderer left anything of value."

"From the burns we found, the blast was caused by multiple napalm explosives and claymore mines. There is nothing left now if you will ple—" I was impressed that her tone being civil, but fuck today.

"Nope," I said, moving past her and into the wreckage already manifesting Hinukamuy, who guessing from his rage was equally infuriated by our lack of an assailant or something to punch.

He tore through the wreckage, making sure to crunch any scraps of metal before I finally made it to the warehouse floor. The blast had come from below the warehouse. So it stood to reason there was something under the warehouse that allowed the rat to set up that little light show. I made to punch the ground when I felt a hand on me.

"Under the PRT agreement with the United States of America, any matters not involving Parahumans shall be investigated by the normal police," The police chief finally spoke up.

"So the fact that _I'm_ a Cape and got blown up means that I can't try to figure out who did it?"

You'd think them believing me to be a parahuman and the target would make me "Involved" by default.

"However, since Gankoomon is a Parahuman, and was the victim here, this matter is the PRT's to deal with." Mrs. Militia retorted all civility gone from her voice. Then she rounded on me. "And, Gankoomon, if you want to further pursue your case I suggest you _work with us_ …"

The woman had some spine. I felt my mood improving. "Hehehehe. Okay, before the explosion went off, I heard a beeping sound from below. Considering I was bathed in fucking napalm a second later, I'm betting that whoever tried to kill me planted explosives underground." To punctuate this, I finished the punch that I had been holding back, cracking the already weakened foundation.

The floor gave way to an underground basement with an epicenter of scorch marks. I looked around, in twenty seconds after entering the building the guy I had been tailing had been able to go under here, and then detonate this. So it stood to reason... My eyes landed on a charred husk.

"Fuck me running," I growled an hour down the drain and an expendable mook had been used to do it.

"Hey, Mrs. Militia, since I've been so cooperative with you guys, could I get the records on who used to own this place? Since they obviously have enough money to build a hideable, and what used to be very nice looking basement."

"Nope." My train of thought halted,

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Militia, _what was that_?" I replied Hinukamuy rumbling, and I felt the other Capes approach.

"So are you like a mixture of _Power Rangers_ , and _JoJo's Bizarre Adventure_?" Assault asked almost without regard to his own continued survival. Before Hinukamuy growling started to rumble the building. I was actually impressed that he knew about Jojo, considering in this world it had only been a manga and OVA series that Leviathan cut before its time. And even then it wasn't always popular in the West.

"It's a PRT matter. We'll get back to you, tomorrow after we've taken a thorough analysis of the building." I sighed, not like I couldn't just look it up online myself, but it was more legwork than I was comfortable with.

"Fine," I growled. "But get back to me tomorrow with what you've found, I don't care how small." And with that I flew into the air and away from my headache.

9:00 P.M. Westside Brockton Bay

"So what you're saying is, she told you off and you got blown up after being played like a Rookie?" my ever-infuriating Student asked with a hundred watt smile.

"So what you're saying is, you want to have your next training exercise in a volcano under fire from Examon?" I asked in reply, making my voice go into a mockery of his.

"You're evil," he muttered, smile disappearing. Hah, try to sass me Brat! I know everything. "Anyway, I found out her power," He continued, slipping into a morose tone. _'...And back to Taylor. What is he, Partnered to her?'_

"Okay, Brat, what is it?" I asked already preparing mentally for his angsty segway.

"She controls bugs. About a block of range. I don't think there's vocal feedback but I think there is visual because one crawled into my pants, and she turned really red like the one time I took off my shirt."

"Brat, one day you will find out what that means—" _'Even if I have to beat it into you.'_ "—and on that day, I _will_ start laughing until the end of time. Or Omnimon uses All Delete on Yggdrasil. Whichever comes first."

"Whatever, Master." I could see his brain deciding to never figure out what Taylor turning red meant, for the sheer sake of not giving me any reason to laugh. _'Like that was going to stop me.'_

"Anyway you get the most inferior morons, and I'll get the shame of all Asians everywhere. I mean seriously "Azn Bad Boyz." What type of name is that? Have enough pride to spell correctly at least."

"Yes, Master," he replied before skating away. Rene was the only projection he had on him. Atho and Por know each personally protecting one of the Heberts, which was the closest equivalent I bet this world would have to Craniumon's Avalon being active all the time.

I sighed before leaping into the air, going to where I knew some ABB thugs were. Which is of course when a man in an Oni mask teleported in front of me and exploded.

End Worm Protocol 4.1: Lesson 1: Don't Wake Sleeping Gankoomon.

AN: I'm going to have fun with this Arc.


	26. Chapter 18: L2: Don't Surprise Gankoomon

Worm Protocol 4.2: Lesson 2: Don't Surprise Gankoomon

The blast of fire caught me instantly. Momentarily halting my advance in mid-air, and shrapnel bounced off my visor, and others caught on the fabric. I heard a crack behind me, and Hinukaymon reacted his fist latching out catching the next bundle of grenades and Oni Lee's arm.

I used the momentum from the blast to anchor myself on the roof. Across the street, I could see lights turning on which meant he needed to go down _now_.

I heard a pop and a rooftop away was Oni Lee. His arm was bent at the wrong angle, so that meant he wouldn't be using that arm for suicide bombings for a couple of months.

"Yare, Yare," I drawled. "What a shitty greeting from a fellow countryman. Then again…" I tilted my head. "You are a shitty excuse for japanese person."

He popped away to another building and then across four in quick succession and continued to run from me, though never so fast that it seemed like I'd actually lose him.

 _That is a trap, It is such an obvious trap...Fuck it, I need this._

"Okay then, let's play ball," I muttered before bounding off the roof into the air, only for the sound barrier break as I started moving towards him. He predictably popped away, but not before detonating more explosives which as I quickly proved were fucking nothing.

"So I'm just so agitated, I wasted thirty minutes tailing this van, and then when it finally stops, and I go to check it out the whole building explodes." I kept brushing past the rooftops of each building we passed, my digisoul flaring making a corona in the sky.

"What I'm saying is **I need someone to beat like a drum and you are making yourself an** _ **excellent**_ **target**."

He threw ten grenades at me for that, the fucker.

Hinukamuys roar must have echoed across the city judging by the rapid pulses of Digisoul that hit me. Which did jack shit, as we continued like that for ten more blocks, which is when I started feeling the second cape. Which meant the trap was about to be sprung, and then I could actually punch somebody in the face.

He went through the window of a warehouse, I like a proper Digimon, went through the door. I saw Oni Lee kneeling on the ground speaking with a tall asian man shirtless and wearing a mask. My eyes took in the famous Lung, I had explicit orders from Duftmon not to kill him, which was fine… He could die to the Abomination.

"If you don't mind, I need that little bastard for a couple minutes. I owe him a beating and don't intend on skipping out on my debt." I watched as his muscles started to bulge. Oni Lee popped towards me and this time I just punched him in the face, sending him through a wall. I didn't care if he died at that point.

"Ahh shit, I broke him" I sighed, seemingly ignoring the rapidly transforming man. " _ **Care to sub in?"**_

"I'm goona kifl you," he growled at me.

"Bitch please, my comrade erases reality and becomes a dragon as well. So yeah, come on bring it, _Yakitori_." He sent a plume of fire towards me the heat searing the floor of the warehouse and washing over me. I waited for it to die down.

"Didn't even singe my c—"

He body checked me, or tried to, as a mass of silver scales hit me. I dug my feet through the floorboards. No, this shit was not happening...

"I fought Crawler for around two fucking hours, and still had more strength to give,'' I growled as he spewed flames into my face. In return, I my hand wrapped around his head, and I leapt through the roof.

He kept on growing, and his claws actually started to tear through the fabric, which considering the various mixture of claws, reality warping attacks, and food stains this bodysuit had survived was saying something.

When the city was just sparkles to us I let go, and just watched him fall. He would survive the fall, stop ramping up, and—

A blue blast of fire lit up the night sky, and I looked down "Oh, that's brilliant. He can fucking _fly_." The quickly approaching silver dragon was a full dragon now. Four leathery wings allowing him to quickly ascend to my level.

"So, what this tells me," I nodded my head, flying backwards as he rose to my level… and he was bigger than oh that's it! I was done. Space Aliens were _bullshit_ unless they were me or other Digimon.

"Is that you fail even _harder_ at being Japanese." Our country's dragons didn't even need wings to fly because they were minor gods. They didn't use fire, but water, being deities of rivers and seas. They only had three toes, because they were badass like that.

Of course, he just roared at me, because battle banter was not an art appreciated by mammals.

"Yeah that just about sums up my day," I growled into the air as Hinkamuy gave my reply, though I smirked, it was _louder_.

We clashed together, the air howling past my ears. Hinukamuy grabbed Lung's mouth, which opened in four different directions, and _twisted._ Cutting off the stream of fire, and any more of his pointless roaring.

I grabbed his approaching claw and pierced through it with my other hand. Hinukamuy freed up his arms, changing focus to the rest of Lung's of body parts. While he was still regenerating his arms, Hinukamuy and I split up. Hinukamuy bit into Lung's now long neck and tore it out in a shower of blood. Must have hit the Carotid or the Jugular.

I, for my part, had moved to behind the Brute and was tearing apart the wings. I stopped as any tears I made quickly reformed and Lung started twirling through the air snapping his jaws at me. Hinukamuy retaliated by grabbing Lung's head only for the jaws to _snap out of Hinukaymon's_ grip.

"Okay, to be fair, you've brought this on yourself, and be fair about this." His jaws snapped near my ear. Hinukamuy grabbed the base of his wings, and my fist lit up with my Soul.

"This is going to hurt you so much more than it's going to hurt me." I had had it with this day, I had had it with everyone thinking that they could jerk me around. _And I had had it with his backsass_.

" **Tekken Seisai"**

The wrath of my soul would have outstripped the sun in daylight. Now, it was day again, after sunset. Hinukaymon's hands held all four of Lung's wings as Lungs body shot downwards. The air shrieking as he plummeted.

I kept a moderate pace above him, dodging the chunks of flesh that were flying off from the speed of his descent. He hit the Bay with an awful crack, soon swallowed by the plume of water.

…

Jesmon P.O.V.

10 PM, Brockton Bay

I sighed internally, Master had made such a mess. They'd be cleaning up dragon chunks from the streets for weeks after this. But from what I had heard of his day… and really all the frustrations that he'd had up until this point… He needed to blow it off somewhere. At least he picked Lung, who was tough enough to take it, and could be seen as important for our "Image."

I noted my danger sense wasn't tingling more than usual, so Master should be fine. Then, I heard the sound of sirens. The Protectorate and PRT. Time to place peacemaker. I absently noted Miss Militia was the first one on the scene, which considering the Movers the Protectorate had, meant that she had been rather close when the fight had begun. Perhaps patrolling nearby?

"Jesmon," she greeted formally. I nodded in reply. "Is everything alright? I saw Lung transform fully."

"Everything is fine," I assured her. "Gankoomon just needed to blow off some steam after a very trying day."

"He blows off steam by picking a fight with Lung?" one of the PRT officers asked disbelievingly.

"I don't think he went looking for Lung," I replied. "But this is something we'll have to remember for the future. Gankoomon has been looking for a good sparring partner."

"This was a _spar_?" Miss Militia asked dangerously, most likely worried about the people who might have been hurt.

"Again, no, but so few people are able to fulfill the two criteria that Gankoomon has in sparring partners." I raised one finger in the air. "First: Survive." I raised a another finger. "Second: be able to fight back. Against most people, Gankoomon spends the entire fight holding back, and takes it out on his opponents by degrading them verbally. When he respects you, he fights almost silently. Crawler might have been able to survive, but not only could he not fight back, he was almost completely insane. Lung is at least on some level rational, and therefore, could in theory be reasoned with." I flashed them a dangerous smile, remembering some of the shit the Old Fart had put me through. "Besides, offer him the choice of becoming Gankoomon's Sparring Partner or the Birdcage and watch him run. I'm willing to bet he'd beat Legend in a race."

"Christ, you're all insane, aren't you?" Dauntless muttered behind me to Armsmaster the whole PRT squad was here alarmed by well Master being Master, which was a perfectly logical reaction for people who couldn't escape his wrath.

"Ulforce says, we're not supposed to talk to psychologists," I replied seriously, causing the man to choke and the other heroes to look at me.

"Well that is _wonderful_ ," Battery muttered only to put her hands in her face when I fully turned around and nodded at her.

"You're completely right, Puppy, it is!" Assault said speaking loudly as possible. "By the By what does the "Jes" in Jesmon stand for?"

"Jesus," I replied tilting my draconic head curiously. Hopefully that would clue them into the fact that I was confused about the question. That was what Taylor told me to do if I didn't want to ask a stupid question.

"Unfortunately," Master's voice cut through night sky. Everyone turned to see him hovering over the water; Lung, now human again, slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "The Brat won't be dying for our sins anytime soon."

"Wait, does that mean you're the Mister Miyagi in this situation Gankoomon?" Velocity asked joining in on the conversation. Nobody would explain to me how it could change gears like this. Humans, so confusing.

"That's right! First lesson I taught him: Wax On, Wax Off." That was a lie an awful horrible lie that no one would ever believe.

"Hey, did someone sweep his leg? Because that seems to be the problem." Velocity said ignoring the truly awful subtext that I was sure Master had put in there.

" _You left me in a warzone where everybody wanted to kill me!_ " I shouted in outrage.

" _You did what?"_ Mrs. Militia shouted at him. Finally somebody could sympathize.

"Hardly. Didn't I pay for your transport across the border into Cairo?"

"Four _fucking_ weeks," I ground out. " _You left me in the desert for four goddamn weeks_! And don't feed me that bull about "Lessons"!"

"When I am taking a nap, don't wake me up," he retorted causing some of the PRT officers to choke.

"Should we be concerned about pressing charges?" Miss Militia asked.

"No," I replied, looking at Miss Militia fully. "I'm able to save people because of his training, as awful as it was. Just don't expect me to start handing him "Teacher of the Year" Awards."

"So _that's_ why you can't see a psychologist," Dauntless muttered causing Master to snort at him.

"We could fill entire journals, with half the crap in our heads. Assuming, of course, we didn't drive the shrink insane first. The world is not ready for our minds." Then he turned to me. "However, Brat, I am seeing a distinct lack of Nazis knocked out, which leads me to believe you are incompetent."

"Not to worry, Bro." A voice called out causing Master's face to pale.

"No," he pleaded.

" _Yes_ ," I smirked back.

" _How_ did I not even sense him?"

"Not to worry, Bro." Ulforce said descending to our little gathering while chortling to himself. "These two chicks did _nazi_ me coming either!" He gestured to the two unconscious capes. Frenja and Menja.

"Yggdrasil Dammit, Ulforce." Master and I shouted at him.

End 4.2: Lesson 2: Don't Surprise Gankoomon

AN: So we're going back to singular P.O.V. Just Jesmon and Gankoomon. They are a tag-team, but yeah, this is gonna be about Gankoomon. Ulforce is a surprise guest, who got bored. Don't worry, he'll wander off and go bug Duftmon… or something. Either way, how was the window dressing in this chapter?


	27. Chapter 19: L3: Don't Call Gankoomon Out

4.3: Lesson 3: Don't Call Gankoomon Out.

Location Brockton Bay, January 19th 10:00 A.M

" _ **You set him on me didn't you!?"**_ Duftmon's tone was furious and it was so glorious.

"I have _no_ idea what you mean," I drawled to the phone in my ear, leaning back into the black leather couch we had bought after weeks of brotherly bickering over what we could afford to buy. Until Duftmon started doing… Huh, what _did_ he do all day, anyway?

" _ **I have a legitimate business to run. I**_ _ **cannot**_ _ **have Ulforce replace my driver, and then show up during a meeting."**_ I snorted.

" _ **Do you find this funny?"**_ He was going to kill me, spend three weeks plotting a plan that would utterly erase me from existence, and, oh, it was so _worth it_.

"Fucking hilarious, brother. Now if you'll excuse me I'm getting a call from—" I held out my phone to check who the caller was "—Alphamon?"

" _ **Don't you da**_ — _ **"**_ I hit accept, cutting Duftmon off mid-rant. He was going to try to kill me and it was going to be great.

"Hey ya, Alphamon. What can I do for the brother who never sticks around?" I grabbed a beer and started drinking from it.

"I need some advice on how to raise children." His tone was still the same dry, I-give-no-shits, tone but if you looked closer there was a tiny uplift to his english accent that indicated he was serious.

"Pfft," a spray of crappy beer spewed from my mouth, as my human body tried to compensate for beer going down the wrong pipe, and the world going wrong apparently, because what the fuck. I pounded my chest to get more of it out.

"Alphamon you were _there_ when Hackmon regaled you with my training cum raising of him as a child, and I'm pretty sure he conspired with Crusadermon and Dynasmon to kill me once." He tried more on his own. "You do know this right?"

"Well yes, but Jesmon turned out great." He had a point, which was not helped by the TV showing a "People Saved by an Orange Ghost" count on the T.V. Despite myself, my eyes flickered through the numbers in the report. Only 600 in Brockton Bay, which spoke volumes about the crime in the city, and how limited he was having both Atho and Por protecting the Heberts. 

"Jesmon I'm pretty sure evolved with his own data to become the exact opposite of my own behavior, _and what in the Dark Zone is wrong with you_? Shouldn't you be calling Gallantmon or Magnamon?"

"Gallantmon is in a God-forsaken desert, and while my high-coding skills are _good_ , in the human world I can't make such a long-range communication. As for Magnamon, well, I like him too much to piss him off.

"That's reassuring," I muttered. _'Can't you give me the same courtesy?'_ Then I resigned myself another crappy day. "Okay, what's the problem?"

"Well I got these two kids from when I broke Heartbreaker, and well, I cut a deal where they're under house arrest."

"The _Problem_ is the boy Nicolas has a Master power such that it causes spasms throughout a person's body, even ours. The girl, Vanessa... Well depending on what music she plays she can induce _other_ effects on your body."

"Okay I'm still failing to see the problem." I muttered turning off the T.V leaving the only remaining light coming into the apartment from the windows.

"The problem is they were raced by a sociopath with no regards to things like empathy or morals. Nor did he see these fit lessons to teach. I had to stop the girl from forcing her brother to act like a nutjob." I stewed on that… Humans were awful.

"So why not just smack her around?" I asked tiredly.

"Because unlike the Digital World where a parent can do that and get better results, humans aren't Digimon and aren't built for pack lessons. She has scars, you know those things humans can't' heal from?"

"And you _didn't_ kill this guy? I'm impressed, Alphamon, his chunks would have been across America, if it was any of our other brothers, except maybe the Brat."

"If he somehow escapes his confinement from the Birdcage, his heart won't make it through the first beat." I didn't pity the bastard, because anybody who could piss off Alphamon had basically forsaken one of the most understanding digimon in both worlds. And well, the brighter the light, the deeper the shadow.

"Comforting to the kids I bet. So what were you hoping by calling me?" I asked.

"I was hoping you would have advice on how to instill morals in them, seeing as my previous attempts aren't working, and while Kyouko was a good detective her memories aren't giving me anything useful."

"Okay, what have you tried doing so far?" I sank into the couch resigning myself to giving advice to my brother, seriously something was fundamentally wrong with this world.

"Nicolas is easier to deal with, except he's tried to con me twice into getting what he wanted, and all I need to do for him is make him understand who _is_ and who _isn't_ an "acceptable target." I think he's still expecting me to kill him, which considering what I did to his father is kinda reasonable."

"Well first off, and this is for both brats, find out their hobbies or just have them find something that they enjoy. It can be a T.V show or a physical activity. As for the trusting part, show some of your quirks."

...There was a long silence.

"You haven't been in human form in front of them, have you?" I asked seriously.

"Not really, no." He replied his tone now having what I assumed to be embarassment. You could never really read Alphamon, unless he went on a scientific tangent, which was really Kyouko filtering through.

"So, wait..." I started chuckling. "They only know you though the same form that utterly _wrecked_ their father's shit, probably and traumatized them when you first met? And you're _wondering_ why they don't trust you? Sorry to say, Alphamon, but you aren't exactly a figure to approach normally."

"Fair point," he muttered, probably already constructing a mask to wear in human form.

"So what's this "Vanessa's" deal?" I asked as I finished my beer.

"She's _ten_ ," his tone darkened, which caused some confusion before I remembered that humans weren't like Digimon in what they could or couldn't do at a young age. "Heartbreakers approach with her was different than with Nicolas. Instead of the whole emotional detachment with his other children, he would spend time with her, make her feel like she was loved, and the instant she showed any signs of disobeying Heartbreaker, 'playmates' would disappear. A pet would die. But nothing that seemed to be connected the Heartbreaker. They looked random. And it happened again and again, until she became convinced that the only way to be happy was following "Daddy Dearest's" _every order_."

I stewed on that before speaking again. "Wow, like, are you _sure_ you don't wanna kill him? Because I'm pretty sure I, or rather you, could convince Duftmon to overwrite the security feed in the Birdcage for a bit. We'd open a digital portal, you'd do your Classic "Hand of God" grabbing and crushing thing, and nobody would be the wiser. And, well, you can't say the world is better off with him still alive."

He didn't speak right away, which meant he was considering it. He didn't speak for thirty seconds, which meant he was _really_ considering it. It was almost an entire minute before I heard him sigh wistfully. "I'll regretfully decline, if Lustrum doesn't kill him the second she sees him, the Faerie Queene will."

"So back to Vanessa, she's probably got the fear of well... doing non-normal human girl things, along with a complete disregard for anyone but herself," I trailed off a bit in thought before tacking on, "although considering she and Nicolas are a pair, I'd pursue helping her through him." I absently rubbed my chin. "Start bringing some magazines for her, she's ten, although I bet she's street smart. She'll want something eventually. Although, she won't approach you directly about it. Just keep a close eye on what she looks at the most, and talk to Nicolas, and get that for her."

"Part of her problem is that she's used to following Daddy's order and well getting everything she wanted. How would getting her crap help?" He replied with a sigh.

" _That's_ the second part. After the initial part is over, and she gets her toy or whatever. She'll want more, and I bet she'll be a little patamon to you about it, acting all perfect. That part is crap. Destroy it, deny it and keep on doing it until she cracks. After there's going to be a huge bitch-fit and if you want to keep this kid, well out of jail and make her acceptable to society, keep it on the down-low. 'Cause you are going to be _destroying_ her patterned world view. That means _anybody_ and _anything_ is going to be an 'acceptable target.'" I finished, thinking back to Noir during my early years.

"How many times have you done something like this?" Alphamon asked apprehensively. I could somewhat understand, most people when confronted with a person broken down and rebuilt into something terrible tried to take the edges off, smoothing it out and making it look more pleasing to the world at large while keeping the taint inside. Baby and Bathwater and all that crap. Me, I smashed that fucker, and made sure nothing was left of the original. Creations as distorted as that deserved to remain with their owners, forgotten by history. I'd make something new from the pieces that remained. Maybe not the same as what it would have been, but it would be pure, inside and out.

"What are you talking about, Alphamon? I'm definitely not giving advice to you. And this is a conversation that most certainly never happened. And if you want this definitely-non-existent-conversation to continue I suggest you play along." There were some doors, that were always meant to be opened once and in one way. It was never good to even remember their existence later.

"Of course, Gankoomon, and I assume this includes you staying up at night the first week to watch over Jesmon." Alphamon replied completely ignoring the implied threat. The ass, he could at least _pretend_ to be threatened.

"Asshole, that goes without saying. I mean I already give enough crap to Omnimon forgetting he can't stay at 100% forever without the Omega In-Force," I joked before my mouth went into flat line. "The third step is the most important one. Start treating her like a regular girl, don't be an asshole and treat her like a baby, but let her know it's okay to act her age. When she starts to socialize don't do what we did with my Brat, and dump her into school. Homeschool her, but have her develop a circle of friends, after that instill proper morals in her. Don't get caught stealing when necessary. Don't kill people unless you're being know, the works."

"Most people would say "Don't steal and don't murder," you know?"

"And those human beings would not last a day in the Southern or Western Quadrants, anywhere post Death-X rampage, or most of their own Third World countries, and you're full of shit if you're calling me out on that."

"Just saying," He replied before sighing. "Well, I need to go be a hero and take care of the kids."

"Before you go Alphamon. I need to ask something," I interjected, likely half a second before he would have hit disconnect, finally standing up and going into my bedroom.

"What is it?" I heard him reply, it was weird hearing the Aloof Hermit ask me something that wasn't an asinine riddle. He pulled off the whole I-know-something-you-don't effortlessly.

"Why go this far? I mean yeah the kids got a shitty hand from life, but being the parent or savior, is more along the lines of Gallantmon, Magnamon, and my Brat."

"Who knows." He replied and I could picture that infuriating smile on his face. "Maybe it's a mixture of nostalgia and other things. Maybe it's out of a sense of duty," he sighed wistfully. Then I _heard_ his familiar smirk. "Or who knows, I could doing it just because I want to, I _am_ a knight after all. Oh and Gankoomon they'll be back again, you can be assured of that."

I thought on taking care of Noir and Blanc: shared meals, training, and just living with them forever. Blanc patching up Hackmon while chewing me out even though she was stuttering every other word, and Noirs smiles as she watched me and Hackmon train.

"Of course I know that," I replied before realizing he had already hung up. I set my phone to the side of my dresser, where a picture of all us in human form was and muttered to the ceiling, "You're a cryptic asshole, Alphamon, but I'd be lying if I said you weren't a great brother."

My phone started buzzing, the work one. No Caller ID, I sighed, "Let's see who has a deathwish today."

"You have reached the voicemail of the Great and Mighty Gankoomon, if you want to die, please press 4 after the beep. If you have important shit to tell me, please press 6 now." I replied keeping my normal tone of voice before saying "Beep."

"You're charming aren't you, Gankoomon?" Director Piggots voice said causing any good feelings I had from my chat with Alphamon to vanish. Yggdrasil dammit, Earth Bet! Do you just conspire to suck joy from life?

"Director did you press six? Because if not, well shit, it seems I have no reason to ta—"

"I have the records of the building you were in before it blew up with you in it." I could just feel her disappointment that I had lived too.

"Just a day later than I expected an actual report from the PRT by press release. What a tight ship you run, Mrs. Piggot," I snarked at her.

"We have it at the Oil Rig, for you to pick up, and before you complain about why I can't tell you over the phone, cooperation works between two parties."

"Yeah, and it also goes both ways, and it takes trust. Two things I'm not getting vibes from you on."

"I assure you, you'll get plenty on the Oil-Rig." Then she hung up on me, before I could reply. I stared at the phone.

"The things I do for this world," I muttered angrily, before storming out of my room and then the apartment.

Location: Brockton Bay Oil Rig/PRT headquarters 11:00 AM

I landed on the Helicopter pad, scowling, as I sensed the Abominations taint en masse. Duftmon could study Its unique Soul or whatever we picked up from it, but we all knew there was something completely and inherently wrong with it.

My tabi sandals clacked on the concrete, and I flashed a smile that was all teeth towards the PRT guns equipped with what I knew to be containment foam. So not helpful in containing a raging Mega. "So, I've come to get a report you called about," I drawled, throwing my shoulders into a slouch.

"We'll take you to her office sir, and if you would please manifest your projection," I obliged Hinukamuy's form breaching the skyline with anybody looking could see it miles away.

"Okay he's out, so how is this going to work? I asked "Is she going to deliver the report to me, because Hinukamuy doesn't like closed spaces isn't that right?"

He growled in agreement.

"Sir," the guard on the left was gritting his teeth. "We merely want your projection out to ensure it doesn't go somewhere it—"

"He," I replied cutting him off. "My friend here identifies as a he."

"And I'm sure he's very tough and can handle being at a manageable size for a couple minutes," the officer retorted with appreciable sarcasm.

I smiled and brought Hinukamuy down to size where his head would fit through the door with only a little trouble.

"Thank you, now if you could follow me to the Director?" The guard on the right said. I nodded my head, and he turned around and starting walking towards the doors.

Just as we were about to enter through the door, Thirty feet away I heard the other guard speak. "What an asshole."

I didn't reply as Hinukamuy stretched out right into the guard's face and whispered conspiratorialy, though everyone on the yard could hear him. **"He is merely a Rookie in being an asshole and I haven't even reached my final form yet, human."**

I snorted at that. Hinukaymuy rarely spoke, and when he chose to he didn't speak again for months preferring to merely growl or send emotions through our bond. "Yggdrasil forbid, you do," I said walking past our stunned guard. Burst mode achieved it, but that was temporary. I remembered the route we had taken to the Director's office beforehand. I pressed the button to the elevator, and entered the code, for it, only for it to turn red.

"Sir, please don't touch that," My guard said speaking into his ear piece, probably preventing me from getting sprayed or something annoying like that. Just for that he got me only being a little assholish.

I watched as he put in the proper code, filing it in my head even though it would probably be changed within a week.

We stepped into it, and merely closed my eyes, as the elevator went up, very high. It was flawless, no pressure on my ears despite the speed we were going. My guess was confirmed as the door opened a mere ten seconds after entering the elevator.

Hinukamuy growled as we were very close to multiple capes. Causing the security guard to shift his eyes to my friend, he didn't even pale which was a point in his point in his favor.

"Sorry like I said, he really doesn't like closed spaces. Gets all growly and forgets to use his words." I said in a completely serious tone.

"I'm sure he does, sir," he replied equally serious.

Shame he didn't take the bait, but my attention was pulled from my guard when I looked down from the corridor where we were walking. I turned my head to the left, and observed one of the main cause of my headaches, Shadow Stalker in costume going against… A complete unknown who was not on the Brockton Bay Wards list. She, because of the curves I could make out, was wrapped in a purple costume with a visor which flared up on the sides of her face. It looked like an arrow. And stupid, couldn't forget that.

I watched her go for a leg sweep only for Shadow Stalker to phase through it and follow up with a punch to her face. That wasn't practical at all.

"I'm sorry, sir. Is something wrong?"

"Yeah..." I trailed off as I realized I didn't know this guy's name.

"Captain Cameron, sir," he introduced himself. Considering he wasn't in costume, I assumed Captain referred to a military rank. Otherwise it was seriously the stupidest name I'd heard all day.

"Ohh, I warrant a Captain?" I asked as I sent a grin at him.

"We drew straws. I lost." Oh stupid name or not, I wanted to give him a business card.

"You're good," I said, patting him on the back, "But who's the new girl down on the mat?"

"That's Flechette sir, she transferred here with me," he said minorly tensing from the contact.

He replied as we passed the doorway to the room they were in. "What's her shtick, something to do with arrows?" Seriously, despite Crusadermon loving the PRT's image director, the man needed to be reminded _fashionable_ did not equate to _practical_.

" _Says the man in a black body-suit, with tabi sandals,"_ The brats voice echoed through my brain, and I made a note to punch him in the face later. Delusional voices in my head were reserved for Noir and Blanc only.

"I'm not able to disclose that information, sir," he replied as if reading it off a cue card.

"Of course not," I sighed. "What isn't need to know around here, where the bathrooms are?"

"There locations are classified as well, sir," he stated again, as much exasperation as I felt seeping into his tone and, Yggdrasil, he needed to work for us.

"We are going to get along just fine, Captain," I told him, a full blown smile on my face.

"Like a house on fire, sir." He remarked with perfect deadpan delivery.

"We are going to burn so bright, my friend," I agreed before we stopped at the Director's Office.

I put my hand on his shoulder. "Captain, despite our short snarking match together I've come to the conclusion that I want to offer you a job."

"Not interested, sir."

I grabbed a business card from my white coat, and took out the small blue card with the knight's insignia.

"I insist, we pay great, we cover everything, and in case you die horrifically we will take care of your family."

"That's reassuring, sir, but I'm afraid I must decline."

I shrugged, "Never hurts to ask, and keep it anyway, our Dental Plan is great."

He sighed before taking the card and putting it in his pocket before walking away.

"Wait, where are you going?" I asked a feeling of apprehension filling me.

"I was only meant to take you outside the Director's Office. I'm sure she'll meet with you shortly. However, she _is_ a busy woman." He said before walking off.

"Busy woman my ass," I muttered under my breath, we've practically done her job for her. I ignored the fact that Cauldron had revealed their feudalistic cape society plans, but not the one who was in charge. I narrowed my eyes at that. I got that our group's didn't get along, but their agent better not impede our progress.

I sat down on the chair, and waited and waited, and I checked the clock 11:25. I sat back in a slouch and smirked.

"Okay, Hinukamuy, I think it's about time we remind everybody that you _hate_ closed spaces."

A growling noise that was part truck engine mixed with a plane starting, and the other part a pissed off Tiger-Dragon's growl began.

I waited for five minutes. The sound was bouncing off the corridor walls.

I waited another five minutes: I could hear nothing but the growl, and I gave it another ten, before it filled the whole Oil Rig. I could already some Capes reacting, searching the Rig for the source of the noise.

The doors slid open, and Miss Militia walked out. "The Director will see you now," all civility was gone from her tone. I didn't mind or bother acknowledging I'd heard her except by standing up. She could hate me all she wanted to. My Brat had saved millions if not billions of humans and Digimon. He also called me "Master" in spite of everything I had put him through, which caused me to crush the feeling that started to spark in my soul. I was _not_ soft, _dammit_.

I walked past her, the growling stopped as Hinukamuy turned his head to watch her leave, and I walked into Director Piggots office.

The director was a portly woman with a bleach blonde haircut, she also disliked Capes, which to be fair, was fine considering the military files we had on her and Ellisburg.

"So you said you had a report for me," I said as I cocked my head to the side and pulled my lips apart in an approximation of a half grin.

"Here it is." She threw it onto her desk. Hinukamuy grabbed it and brought it to me. I opened it and began leafing through looking bored. The charred husk I had found in the Basement was an American man who was identified by his dental records as Graham Roberts, who had previously worked for Medhall. I flipped to the next page. The company that used to own that building was _Fortress Construction_. The name was familiar.

"So, what _does_ Mr. Calvert have to say about one of his previous buildings that he used to own being used in an attempt to take my life?"

"We already phoned him, and he said that the building had been commissioned by a storage company that had to fold the project when it was nearing completion due to downsizing. He finished it with money from his own pocket and had been looking to sell or rent since. He suspects that someone broke in and used it as a staging grounds."

"Okay staging ground failed, so what else do you have for me?" I asked still flipping through the files, finding miscellaneous crap before concluding that they had jack and shit. Graham Roberts had no surviving relatives, and he had been laid off from Medhall two months ago. It all painted the picture of a desperate man, but not one who'd shadow Daniel Hebert for three days only to blow himself up with military grade weapons when confronted.

"We have nothing more."

"The man tried to kill me with claymores. Which he shouldn't have access to unless he was military and you have "nothing." Doesn't this bug you?"

"A lot of things "bug" me, Gankoomon, what most bugs me of all are Capes who don't know the consequences of their actions."

I started laughing. "Wait… So _that's_ what this is about? I'm surprised, Director, I'd have thought you be happy. I mean think of what we've done for the place."

"Upset the balance of the city, and despite the E88 being quiet now, they will repay these slights with blood. Not to mention the fact you've practically opened the rest of the city for them.

"Them and what army? Their overseas support? The one Ulforce shattered in two nights? He's actually upset about that you know, something about a bet with one of their thugs. Why it's almost like there should be a federal organization that keeps the people safe from loonies with powers...Oh wait."

"We don't have the resources—"

"Bullshit! Like it or not, I've noticed thirty more people here today than the last time I was here, _and_ a new cape. I don't even have to guess that her power is built around piercing my defenses."

I held up my finger as I took a breath, "And I bet you'll have more Capes streaming in, which is funny, considering until Jesmon and I arrived Brockton Bay was written off as hopeless. So like it or not we'll clean up the parahumans, all you have to do is use those resources you've been so graciously given, effectively. That means in such a way so that they do something, in case you didn't know the word's definition."

"One day your reckless actions are going to blow up in your face and the people will pay the price." She said to me.

"And I'm prepared for that responsibility. I'm not doing this to be loved or for some random person to name their first born or something after me. I'm simply doing this because people deserve to not worry about whether or not they get mugged, raped, _killed_ , all because some jackass got superpowers and thinks that they mean he can do whatever the fuck he wants."

I saw her teeth clench, she obviously wasn't happy by my response, and I could almost hear the retort about my brothers and I doing the same thing.

"Is there anything else, Director, or can I leave?"

"Leave. Now." I happily obliged. Good mood down the drain, and the only person who could actually fight me forbidden to due to the public's skewed view of what constitutes being a hero and unified.

I stepped out of the hallway and noted the Abomination's taint around the corner.

I sprinted across the corridor only to skid to halt leaning against the wall to see Clockblocker, Vista, and New Girl. Threat level determined, I returned to my normal slouch, and turned the corner.

"Sup, Clockblocker, Vista, New-Girl." I said, smile completely fake.

"It's Flechette," she said. Who names themselves after darts?

"Of course it is, New-Girl."

Clockblocker snorted. "So do you know what the growling sound was?"

Hinukamuy," I pointed my finger towards my digisoul friend extending so that his head was at the roof. Perfectly aware he was pointing his own finger at himself in an attempt to seem innocent. "Has major claustrophobia issues. I _did_ warn them..." I threw my hands in the air.

"So your dragon-tiger-orange-thing, is claustrophobic?" New-Girl asked, half in disbelief, the other half considering it.

"You can totally ask that Captain Cameron guy. I told them on the way in."

"Wait, why are you here? Shouldn't you be saving people or hanging out with nuke-dragon?" Clockblocker asked, and I could hear the snicker in his voice.

"Night-time rules, and Examon is in the exosphere and I don't feel like flying up there." The snicker died a painful death. "But what about you kiddies, shouldn't you all be, you know, _in school_?"

"Duty calls, and we had to greet New-Girl over here," Clockblocker said clapping the girl on the side.

"It's _Flechette_ ," She said.

"Sure, New-Girl," Clockblocker and I both said causing Vista to snicker.

"Either way, my business is done here. _And_ I need to go figure out how a laid off man was able to afford military grade explosives," I said before walking off.

I heard one of them mutter, "You think he was serious?" before I turned the corner and the elevator door closed.

As the elevator closed, I started to think. I had two connections regarding Graham. He used to work for Medhall, but was laid off, and the intended owner's of what someone tried to make my tomb abandoned the building project due to downsizing. But that didn't tell a consistent story. There was something more at work here.

Medhall from our look through the E88 seemed to be connected to the nazis, so that was a possibility. But it wasn't their style, if they wanted to terrorize they'd have sent skinheads and Hookwolf, not a disposable asset. Not only that, but it was the Merchants that had issue with the Ferry being rebuilt, not the neo-nazis. Besides, Danny was the face of the project and he wasn't a normal target. White, male, and no "blemishes" such as an "unacceptable" religion or covert non-heterosexuality. I took a moment to tsk at how stupid that sounded. The only possible sticking points would be me and the Brat as humans, but we weren't there for the construction, and they'd have been more likely to try and break up the friendship on the down low rather than attack Danny. And the final sticking point was that if they wanted to take the area covertly, they'd have done so by buying the land and doing a little selective selling and hiring. None of those things needed to target Danny.

So Medhall didn't necessarily mean Neo-Nazis. The Merchants weren't organized and they didn't have the spare cash to even _have_ military grade payloads. And they were too shortsighted to add in a decoy by having a dude associated with another gang, superficially I might add, do the dirty. They were upfront about their dislike. And I was upfront in my response.

As for the ABB, they didn't really seem to care about the heavy stuff. They prefered ones that could be taken and thrown or run with. Stuff that their normal members or Oni Lee would be able to use in any engagement they came across. Lung prefered straight throw downs where he could achieve victory by strength. Not covert shit where no one was sure if it was him or not.

But who did that leave? I growled, hopefully Duftmon would focus on the threat to his own plan and tell me before he got too deep into plotting my demise. Still it felt like I was missing something, maybe I had missed a parahuman in Duftmon's report… Nah, still there were some minor groups that I could hit for information, and the Undersiders, for being a bunch of kids, always hit targets when they were least defended. I didn't believe in coincidences either, and it was practically a classic in the Digital World to put yourself into the background and have minor players do your work for you. Still the problem with establishing ourselves the way we did was, that all the minor players crawled into the rocks.

Well, those E88 dog-fighting rings were still around. Which meant I knew a few rocks to kick around, and light a fire under all the minor players as the E88 retaliated... As I walked out of the Oil Rig and started flying towards Brockton Bay. It looked like Director's Piggot words may hold some credence after all, not that I cared or anything, still I felt like I was missing something.

End Worm Protocol 3.3: Lesson 3: Don't Call Gankoomon Out

AN: Why Gankoomon you assholish, asshole, filled with assholishness. No seriously it's a character flaw, that and well the knights arrogance in general, if you guys haven't picked up on that.


	28. Chapter 20: If You Break All Three

**Worm Protocol 3.4: If you Break All Three...**

Gankoomon P.O.V Location: Brockton Bay January 19th 10 P.M.

' _Humans... Are really fucking weak,'_ I thought to myself holding up Stormtiger's head in one hand, my phone in the other.I had to cradle his head so I didn't crush it. All around me E88 members were strewn throughout the dog fighting ring. Said dogs' whimpering in the corner after Hinukaymon growled in their direction. _Which tells me that they have better instincts than these jackasses. What did those thugs think a bat was going to do? Wind claws were entertaining though.'_ Stormtigers head tilted to the side. Oh good, he's conscious.

"Now, kitty cat, hold your head in place. Don't make me do all the work here." I tightened my grip.

"What?" he stated in obvious pain, and also reorienting his head into the perfect shot.

"And smile," I said flashing a grinning snarl and clicking the camera button. One flash later and I now had the perfect way to start the E88's downfall. Better to have their retaliation on a day I was prepared for.

I dropped him to the floor and used my phone to get onto my PHO account which Duftmon had changed from Worst Teacher, which I still needed to punch Ulforce in the face for, to Gankoomon. I got onto the Brockton Bay news thread, and posted Stormtiger and my Selfie, with the added message of.

"Attention, Uberdouche a.k.a. Kaiser a.k.a. King Pussy a.k.a. You Know, That Dick. Your mutts fighting rings are all gonna be gone by morning, dipshit. Let's see what your pet wolf can do about it."

"And send," I said, pushing the button with a flourish. Then I turned to Stormtiger. "Sorry, kitty cat, but I have to go deal with your inferior brethren, because seriously who uses _dogs_ to prove their superiority?"

"They'll kill you you fucking, Cracker-Jack." He looked to continue before I stomped on his hand hearing his scream cut himself off.

"Wrong, I _cracked_ Jack. And if one of your friends want to try me, I sure as shit ain't going to hide."

"Aah... You mother—" I stepped on his other hand.

"Now, now, let's not bring my mother into this. She tends to get _genocidal_ on her bad days."

I watched him roll around the ground before I dialed the PRT's number.

"So you guys better get ready for a long haul, tonight, because Hookwolf's dog fighting rings are all going down tonight. The one I'm at can be seen by the glowing corona of my Soul." I ramped up my soul until It shot through the building roof, becoming visible. "Got it memorized?"

"Sir, an actual street would be appreciated," A female voice said.

"Can't you just look out the window?"

"Sir, the street, and your location."

"Fine. I'm at the dogfighting ring on the second building on the right of 44th street. Is that better? Also I have Stormtiger, who shall henceforth be named Kitty Cat, rolling on the ground at my feet. Don't worry, he'll be unconscious when you get here."

I crouched down next to Kitty Cat and leaned in so I could whisper in his ear. "Time for you to take a cat nap. Don't worry, when you wake they'll have a nice carrier. Maybe with your own litter box.

"Bas—" I punched him in the jaw and he was out like a light.

"One down, twenty more dog fighting rings to go." I said, before leaping out of the building. I started heading east to where the next dog-fighting rings was. _'Now, what to do to entertain myself… How about for each entry I make I say a one liner? ...God this world has made me pathetic, if that's what I'm resorting to myself from falling asleep mid-fight_. _Maybe I should try that…'_

After two minutes of speeding past buildings I burst through the roof of the second dog fighting ring.

" **Hey Kids, Wanna See A Dead Body?"** Five minutes later, multiple broken bones, and I was onto the next one.

" **Heeeere's Gankoomon!"** The same process later, and it continued like that for five times with varying phrases, the sixth one was when I struck gold or rather copper, but I couldn't choose good fighting partners.

The next dog fighting ring I entered was empty with exception of one Abominations' taint standing in the center of the ring. "Well look at what we have here," I drawled. "A miserable excuse for both a person and a wolf. Wanna play fetch, Fido? I'm sure I can find a rib around here somewhere, you've got spares right?"

The tall man wearing a metal wolf mask went to all fours, and lunged at me. His body transforming into a whirling mass of metal spikes, and other assorted of tools of pain and destruction with six legs carrying him towards me. Seriously, the Brat used his blades more effectively and you could actually count 'em.

I dodged to the right, before using both of my palms to send him into the stands. "Shit, never mind about playing fetch. You're your own ball, aren't you?"

His roar answered me and this time I met his lunging jumping mid-air. Hinukamuy's fist led in catching the nazi in the chest and denting the metal shell, and sending him completely out of the room.

I followed him outwards landing on the, now dimly lit, street, due to Hookwolf crashing into a street lamp.

"You know, I honestly don't know why you haven't surrendered yet. I killed the SH9, a group that would have _shredded_ the E88. I beat the shit out of Lung who, despite your groups so called "superiority" or "best efforts," was able to keep your little organization in a deadlock. So really, the question you should be asking yourself now is, 'how much punishment am I willing to take in a hopeless battle?'"

He roared and leapt at me, I just sighed, and gave up playing with him. Hinukamuy grabbed him and started crushing his metal shell. I wasn't sure where metal ended and human began, but I'd likely find it before going too far. Though _why_ this one didn't have a Kill Order was beyond me.

After a minute I had my answer...

"Ahahahahaha are you fucking kidding me? You actually _are_ your own ball aren't you. Just holy shit, you validated my joke."

I was about to continue before I sensed another of the abominations shard, "So what, Uberdouche wants anoth—"

I had just turned around when a concentrated beam of energy caught my face sending me to the ground and carrying me through buildings and into an apartment complex. Congratulations, let's see what that got you. A _very_ testy Mega and a free punch in the face!

I ignored the screaming of a family and got up, brushed myself off. "Sorry about that," I muttered. "I'll go down and make them apologize for ruining your night, alright?"

They just continued screaming, although the mother took her child and ran out of the room which proved to me that humans had _some_ survival instincts. Still I doubt they had insurance, and I made a mental note to come back here tomorrow and pay for the damages.

"Fine, fine I'll come back tomorrow." The door shut. "Fucking humans."

I started leisurely walking through the me shaped hole in the other building, and started picking up more capes. There was Pussy Wolf, and Purity, because that was the only Blaster I would accept sending me through multiple buildings. There were six other abomination shards. I began cracking my knuckles and neck.

I was about to speak as I came upon the gathering of capes. Purity, Pussy Wolf, Uberdouche/Kaiser, Othala, Rune... they brought a fucking teenager to fight me, for fucks sake! Krieg, Alabaster, and Victor. I was about to start with the banter when Hinukamuy beat me to the punch.

" **I have faced the Lords of Hell, The Beasts of the Celestial Houses, and they who called themselves Divine. Where do you think you stand compared to them? If you are unsure, stay still. I'll show you."**

Uberdouche replied with a tower of metal spikes, I jumped backwards until I hit the wall I rocketed off of it, Hinukamuy leading the assault. He tore through the metal spikes, and was about to hit Kaiser before he was spirited away by a blur. I recognized the blur as Viktor, who must have been granted superspeed by Othala, I had to take care of her first. I split off from Hinukamuy, his spectral tail lashing out and scattering the metal spikes Rune had sent at him like petals in the wind.

I was on Othala within a second, my fist meeting her solar plexus before I spun around her, and smashed her back into the ground. Ich.

"One douchebag down!" I shouted, joyously ignoring the corona of white digisoul that had erupted at one of the other dog-fighting rings. Did they _really_ think the Brat wouldn't help with this? And now those were practically defenseless too.

I started moving towards Krieg when I noticed I was slowing down a lot. Oh this was new. Krieg was still going through a wall though. He sent kick towards my face only for me to grab it and notice the force. Wait, was he transferring my kinetic energy into his body, because that meant he needed to go now. My enlarged hand grabbed his foot and took him to the other side of his street, his body meeting the ground with crack. That was his leg though, he might be unconscious from the pain but I knew how to not kill weaklings. Ni.

Hinukamuy was, I stifled a laugh, using Kaiser as a full body club. Purity was gone, although Pussy Wolf was now back to a regular human and was running down the street... Nope not getting out of this that easy. Hinukamuy sent Uberdouche at him only for Victor to swoop in, and snag his body and start running away.

Oh no you didn't.

" **Chabudai Gaeshi** "

I tore a section of street and even as it gained the hardness of Chrome Digizoid I tore it into chunks and threw one at each of the fleeing weaklings. The problem with super speed when you weren't used to it was dealing with unexpected changes, like a wall dropping where it wasn't before. " San. Yon." Wolfy, well he wasn't out cold, but he wasn't getting out that way.

I turned to Rune who was backing with a veritable storm of metal, wood, and, well... other crap.

"Okay, let's all just put down the wall of crap you have, right there." I pointed off to her side. "I'm not going to pretend that I care about you, but something just sits wrong with breaking a teenager over my leg."

"I _will_ throw this at you!" she shouted at me, backing up.

"Yes and it will bounce off of me just like everything with the exception of Purity's energy blasts, the Siberian's and Lung's claws. So just put it down, kid. It's over, you and I both know it. You guys started this with what, eight guys? How many are still here? You, a poorly trained bitch, and Alabaster?"

I checked around Hinukamuy had Alabaster in his jaws. "Nope just you." I was about to continue when I sensed four other capes approaching. I turned in their direction, and was greeted to the sight of a monster thing barreling straight toward me before a wave of darkness enveloped me. That wasn't what stopped me though. While humans on Earth Bet, didn't exactly emit digisoul like humans on an Earth with a full Digital World did, they still emitted a certain energy, despite the taint of the abomination. I still recognized Brian… A student at the dojo I had taught at...A student I had taught more than the others due to his talent and desire to learn… A student who was a "villain"... ' _Oh, I had forgotten what true rage feels like.'_

My Soul burned brightly.

End The Worm Protocol 4.4: If You Break All Three...

AN: The next chapter is _not_ going to be fun for any parties involved.


	29. Chapter 21: You're Gonna Have A Bad Time

Worm Protocol 4.5: _**You're Gonna Have A Bad Time**_

Nobody had ever accused me of being calm. I wasn't Alphamon, who could wake up to everybody in the world trying to kill him and just shrug his shoulders, wonder, "Is it lunchtime already?" and continue his day. Nor was I the Brat, who would panic. However I usually had a good control on my temper. Somebody trying always to kill me, every fucking day; people bitching, that was life; me not being happy, my whole experience on this _fucking planet…_ That I could deal with. Still betrayal always had the effect of really getting me into a really wrathful mood.

The darkness blanketed me, and among sensory deprivations this was among the better ones. I couldn't see for shit, and my hearing was messed up. The worst part of it all was my sense of touch. Hinukamuy was covered with the stuff as well. It didn't change the fact that, the darkness had to end somewhere, and Brian may be eating out of a tube before the night was out, but still.

I stepped forward, the street cracking under my foot, and I shot out of the veil of darkness, straight towards Rune. I clotheslined her, instantly knocking her out, and probably breaking something. But I couldn't risk her throwing Chrome Digizoid around blindly. The other E88 capes were injured too much to really run away so I wasn't worried. I recalled Hinukamuy to me, and I rose up my digisoul igniting the air around me making the air have shimmering heat waves.

I looked down at the Undersiders, and I smiled something horrendously at them. The fucking moron that was Brian hiding behind skull mask. While Heartrbreaker's other suspected kid, Regent, had a Crown and Scepter among other things. Hellhound had a thick fur coat on with a Rottweiler mask on, and the last of the motley crue was Tattletale, known for proclaiming she was psychic. She wore a simple domino mask over her face.

"Grue, we need to leave _now_!" she said already trying to get her monstrous steed to move.

"No shit!" he yelled back, trying to reign in the animalistic girl. "Bitch, we won't be able to do anything to Hookwolf if we don't get out right now!"

I was having none of that. In an instant, I was right by her monstrous steed. Fingers clenched to spear it through. Only for at the last second for my arm to drive itself into the street burying my body in concrete. ' _Regent!'_ Hinukamuy's form overlapped with mine followed the same action with the same result.

"Alphamon's pity toward your shitty life situation or not, I _will_ break every fucking bone in your body if you don't ditch your friends this instant," I shouted towards Regent. Alphamon mentioned emotional appeals were pretty much useless on Heartbreaker's kids, so I was trying physical threats.

"Regent _do not_ let up on your control of him!" Tattletale shouted again trying to get her steed to move."

" **Little Girl, you say you're psychic. Tell me, what do you see me doing to you once I get out of this?"** Hinukamuy's threat had an obvious effect as she tried even harder to get away from me. Not going to let that happen.

"Uhh, guys, like I'm all for not having every bone in my body broken, but I don't think I can keep this guy long." Regent said and if I didn't want to turn Brian into a pretzel, I could have _almost_ appreciated the calm he was showing.

I felt my arm slacken, and I ripped it out my blazing fist, only for my body to spasm again. I fucking hated anything that could mess with my attacks, so Regent was going to be like every Puppetmon that I had ever fought against, except he would have the misfortune of living.

That was Hinukamuy separated from me, before spasming me still form the lack of control with me, gave me enough time, to catch up to Tattletale. I yanked her off the creature, and threw her to the ground her body rolling to the side. When the dog bit me, it instantly let go as my digisoul set it ablaze.

"Wait, stop!" she held up her hand obviously somewhat dazed, "You can't do this. You're a hero!"

"Wrong," I snarled as I grabbed her arm and squeezed crushing most of the bones in her arm. "I'm a _knight_. There's a difference. And you and your little pals are about to learn it."

I turned around ignoring her screaming and popped my neck. Hinukamuy was still spasming, and I decided to take care of Regent.

"One down," I said appearing behind Regent and breaking his arm, sending his steed through another building. I knocked him unconscious afterwards. Then I started towards Hellhound. Brian would have to be content with seeing his team destroyed. For now.

I kicked Hellhound's steed to the side, though not before grabbing her, and throwing her to the ground, and then smashing my foot down on her leg. She wouldn't be walking anytime soon. I realized there was no skill in my actions. I was fucking _brawling_ , and I didn't care. How _dare_ Brian use skills that I had taught him to protect him and his little sister to be a villain?

"And now for you," Hinukamuy dropped Brian from the air only for my foot to lash out and catch him in the gut. He _should_ have folded over. Instead, I watched him roll four times before he came to a stop. I went from my twelve foot form, to my six foot form, and I waited for him to get up.

"Come on, big guy." Punch me, kick me, you're gonna be black and blue by the end of this either way.

Instead he did something that shocked me, and enraged me even further. "I surrender" He put up his arms, and got on his knees. He tacked on after a couple of seconds. "My team does as well."

My teeth gritted in frustration, I couldn't do anything further, I did not hit opponents who had surrendered despite the fact he had abused my trust and he hadn't done it unknowingly. I had made all my students swear an oath to only use these skills for defense.

I felt my fist curl. Hinukamuy's growl rumbling the street. What did being a villain defend? Hell the PRT here would have bent over backwards to get a cape, and yet he was a fucking villain. I could have punched him right then and there, with my credit nobody would have blinked an eye. However, I merely closed my eyes, and let out a deep breath. And I became aware of something else.

"How long have you been there, Jesmon?" I had forgone our usual banter… Shit. I hated this fucking planet.

He tossed Alabasta, currently unconscious and thus not resseting, to the ground. "I caught what I presumed to be Hookwolf running away, and then I tied up those dog things."

"Are the police on their way?" my question was answered as we saw a siren flash and a PRT van pull onto the street.

"My guess, yeah." Tch. Smartass, he wouldn't have given that lip to any other of our brothers.

Still it was a pretty small van considering all of the Capes we had knocked out here.

I turned to Grue. I pulled him close so that I was sure he'd hear me. "If you escape or even think of doing another villainous act I _will_ find you and break every fucking bone in your pathetic body."

He just nodded his head. My eyes focused on the PRT officer coming up.

"We didn't think so many parahumans would be here. So we'll just take the Undersiders to jail. More PRT vans will be here shortly for the others. Would you two please stay and guard the E88 capes?"

Considering staying in Grue's presence only goaded me further to severely hurting him. I agreed, and Jesmon nodded his head.

"Officer." Jesmon started "I knocked unconscious Cricket, Night and Fog in the other dog-fightings on 8th street fourth the building on the left southbound."

"We'll send a van to pick them up as well." The officer nodded, before turning to his counterpart who had secured Tattletale, before going on to collect Grue. Injecting him with a sedative before carting him to the van. They repeated the process with Hellhound, her creatures, and Regent before they loaded them into the containment van, and drove off.

We watched them leave in silence.

"That wasn't your style, Master," the Brat said obviously picking up on my anger and the fact that my digisoul was searing the street with it's flames.

"I fucking taught one of those brats, and what does he decide to do? Be. A. Fucking. Villain. I knew he had powers, I just assumed he had the common sense not to use them as a villain. He's fighting a custody battle for his sister!" At my Brat's confused look I elaborated. "His sister's current caretakers are really shitty. He's lobbying to make himself the primary caretaker."

"Admirable, but why did he turn to villainy, then?"

"Fuck if I know. He's thoroughly proven himself to be a stupid sack of shit tonight."

I sighed, and decided to start tying up the other E88 villains. After I had a _literal_ pile of nazis, I went cross-legged and started meditating. I needed to clear my fucking head.

30 minutes later Jesmon's P.O.V

Tonight was bad, and Masters mood wasn't just the betrayal of a student. It ha—

My thoughts were cut off as I heard the PRT sirens. Master remained unmoved, although the way his digisoul occasionally flared suggested his temperament.

"Officers, what took you so long?" I asked. "Some of the E88 members woke up and tried to free themselves. I had to _dissuade_ them."

"Well, clearing out all of the E88 dog-fighting rings, may have had something to do with that."

I tried to find a polite way to reply. "I find that surprising." I started carefully. "Considering the fact on how quick a squad car was able to pick up the Undersiders earlier."

"You guys were able to get the Undersiders too? We didn't get a report about that."

Master's body snapped to the officer that had spoken. He didn't need to speak for anyone to hear what he was shouting. ' _What?'_

"We handed them over to a PRT van about 30 minutes ago," I muttered. I only got confused looks in reply. There was some discussion over the radio.

"We didn't get a report about the Undersiders presence. We just came due to, well... the lightshow you guys were putting on."

My brain started connecting the dots. We had handed the Undersiders off to a third party, someone with access to PRT equipment. Meaning that the Undersiders were still at large and worse...

"Excuse me." Master's dull tone promised pain and rage. "I need to go clear out the Boat Graveyard." He rocketed off towards the said location, leaving me to make sure the PRT officers here actually acquired the E88.

 _ **Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"**_ I watched Hinukamuy throw a freighter farther off into the ocean, and for Master to let loose a barrage of punches, parting the bay briefly before it came together with a crash.

I had finally been able to connect the dots onto why Masters mood, had been... Well, worse than usual. He as humans put it, "Had hit the wall." I made note of how the sea he was standing on was boiling. Had… Had it been like that _before_?

I found the human world fascinating, however fascinating or not, we weren't humans. And digimon, or more specifically the Royal Knights as a whole, weren't the best option for scouting the human world. It was down to us specifically and how humans did things.

Humans were well, they didn't handle physical punishment as well which is what I found out after seeing the E88 skinhead I had broken still hurt and not healed the next day. Problem was Digimon... well we fought more, multiple species fought daily. My brothers, the Royal Knights, included those who regularly fought the worst of the worst, and outside of that we still operated on a completely different level than humans.

Sitting still each day, going to work day after day, that was torture for us. My brothers had avoided it by completely throwing themselves behind the mission. Forcing themselves to remember that it was on the orders of our God. And even then, we all jumped at the chance to flex our muscles and try the combat this world had when given the chance.

The problem was even that was found to be disappointing. And for someone who breathed and lived combat, Master was in a world where he couldn't vent. His two daughters were gone. So he was put in a situation where nothing relieved his stress, and he was a world that was practically cardboard. This betrayal was the proverbial straw that had "broken the camel's back," if I got Taylor's idiom right.

I sighed and watched him crumple a boat before punting it into the sky. He had enough force behind it to land somewhere not on land, so I wasn't too worried. I let his behavior continue on for another twenty minutes before went up to him.

I was behind him when I spoke. "So how are we looking on the completion of your 'bitch-fit?'"

Hinukamuy growled, only for Rene to go up and circle him, before hitting Hinukamuy on the back of the head.

"It's about over brat," He muttered, watching a wreck sink into the distance.

"It's not gonna get easier, Master." I said enjoying the stars

"Brat, I know that. I just find this world to be fundamentally fucked up on so many different levels.

"That's true, but aren't we supposed to be Royal Knights?"

"Yes" The reply was short so I knew I was getting somewhere.

"And as Royal Knights isn't it our job to continue the mission no matter what, I shouldn't have to tell you this?

" I know, just..." He trailed off and I let the silence continue, Blanc and Noir were practically my sisters.

Master broke the silence. "Ah shit, look at you being all mature and shit. Maybe next year you can beat Omnimon in the biggest stick in the mud contest." But no matter what he said, he was smiling now, and that was an improvement.

"Charming, Master," I replied dryly, as though there would ever be such a contest.

"Oh and you're even using sarcasm! Oh, I could just cry."

"Mood whiplash and your inherent need to prove you're a masculinity aside, I _will_ burn all the booze in Earth Bet if you start crying." No seriously. Ogudamon and Demon Lords I could handle, Master crying was something so far above me, that I would traverse the multiverse to escape such an event.

I decided to throw him a bone. "Hey, since most of the villains in the Bay are taken care of/ I'm sure we could spar if Omnimon approves."

"Brat, I'm only saying this once, and I will _hurt_ you if you repeat this...You were a great student." He walked off.

I stood there the words repeating in my head before I nodded my head. There was only one course of action. I launched myself at Master.

"Who are you and What have you done with Master?" He dodged, flipping over my strikes.

"Yggdrasil Dammit, Brat!" And all was right with the world.

End Worm Protocol 4.5: _**You're Gonna Have A Bad Time**_

 **AN: So comes an end to Gankoomon's arc, and onto a new knight… Not before I write the interlude of whoever wins. Anywho, I'll have you draw your conclusions on which knight comes next. And how the human world must seem to the Royal Knights.**


End file.
